The Path to Becoming
by Sora Maro
Summary: Danny can't believe it when his mom brings up his dad. It's his fault he left them, his fault his mom has a hard time trusting people, and it's definitely his fault that his summer is packed chock full with the weirdest people ever. Oh wait, magic is real? Can someone bring some common sense back into this estranged reality?
1. Chapter 1

**-Chapter One-**

 **Hi, I'm Danny, Danny Kern**

Danny Kern knew one thing in life – his mom hated talking about her past. Asking her about the series of events that contributed to the now would only be rewarded with one answer

"They made me who I am. Just because I don't like talking about it doesn't mean they're not important. When you get a little older, when the time comes, you'll learn everything I promise."

That never happened.

Now, young Danny lived in the "quiet" town of Amity Park where the Fentons ran rugged chasing after ghosts and blowing things up – however they always apologized for the devastation they accidentally caused. He knew them from their daughter Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton, as she was his freshman mentor. His best friends Samantha "Sam" Manson and Tucker Foley also lived in this charming little American village with all its eccentricities.

Most days Danny hung out with Sam and Tucker. Either goofing off, semi-seriously doing schoolwork, or doing their vigilant training, they stuck together almost 24/7/365. In any case, the Nasty Burger stood tall as the hang out of most teenagers of the area and that stood true for that trio, normally they were found lounging around after school, homework on a table and a burger or – in Sam's case – a salad.

Danny crunched on the crispy fries before reaching for the salt. "It's been rather quiet recently."

"Well, no news is good news, right?" Tucker swallowed an abnormally large bite of BBQ Burger.

"Yes, and no," Sam scratched down an answer on her question sheet, "It could be either. And please, keep your dead animal muscle away from me. Meat already makes me gag, I don't need to smell it."

Danny rolled his sea blue eyes. "Oh c'mon guys, let's not have another meat vs. veggie war again. Don't you guys remember what happened last time?"

Their faces blanched and Sam's turned green at the gills. The Lunch Lady swinging around heaves of raw and cooked meat all around the school – the stench alone was bad enough the school had been canceled until they could clean the odor.

"If we get attacked in the middle of class this week…Screw high school, I'm working full time." Danny sucked the remaining soda out of his drink.

"Really, and how would your mom feel about that?" Tucker raised an eyebrow, his voice full of sarcasm.

Danny frowned. "I know, I know." He dragged out a sigh. "I just wish I didn't have to deal with this all the – fudging – time."

"Well it could be worse. You could always be dealing with Murphy's Law and the Fentons could be your folks. Thank goodness you're not though. Could you imagine dealing with lying continuously to ghost-hunters?"

She had a point. If Danny had been born to Mr. and Mrs. Jack Fenton… He shuddered at the crazy impossibilities. He'd be lying 24/7 to "Ripping apart molecule by molecule!" scientists, not that he wasn't already lying to his wonderful, worrying mother. Though that would mean he wouldn't have to sneak in every time he needed to return a ghost to the ghost zone.

" _If there's something strange, in the neighborhood-"_

"Hey Mom!" Danny loudly gulped the remainder of what he had been chewing and grinned into the phone. "Work going okay?"

" _Well we've had one delivery, four appointments, and three more appointments to go."_

"Does this mean we'll be having dinner at the Cottage tonight?"

" _Unless anyone feels like a May baby is a 'go', then yeah, I'll see back at home, Danny."_

Danny gave his friends a thumbs-up. "I may be back a little late, Tucker and Sam have been wanting to show me this new game at the arcade. But I promise I'll do my best to be home as fast as I can."

He heard fuzzy laughter on the other end. _"That's fine, Sweetie. Enjoy your fun, get school done first, and we'll be having some rotisserie and enchilada rice."_

"Sa-weet! Thanks Mom! I'll hopefully see you at five!"

Snapping his phone shut, Danny cheerfully munched away at his burger and yanked out Lancer's homework. While he began his work, his two friends watched him bug-eyed and gaping.

"Dude," Tucker shifted his glasses back into place. "Hardly ever do you do homework with a smile on your face."

Danny looked up from his short start on school work to glance at Sam. "My mom's coming home early. Hey Sam, do you have any idea what _Mice and Men_ is about?"

"Really!" "That was last week's reading, Danny." Both exclaimed in differing tones at once.

With a hum, he glanced at the question sheet and jotted some more words down before nibbling on a salty fry.

Soon enough they also cracked down on school work – or rather, Tucker did. Their little study group went without a problem for the most part. Sam usually groaned at the idiotic and 'brainwashing' questions they had to answer for several different classes. Math was a pain, except for Tucker. He thoroughly enjoyed their suffering through complex equations and radicals and imaginary numbers. Darn that Algebra II.

Danny shivered unconsciously as he grumbled about a problem. Numbers and signs constantly revolving around his brain he almost missed the faint screams in the distance. Head shooting up, Danny looked at them both in the eye and they nodded. Racing to the restroom, a freezing sensation overwhelmed his functions as they nullified every nerve and awakened every other sense. Visible breathe appeared in front of him and he grimaced. The inner pulsing wouldn't quit and he dove through the wall, the shaky feeling not bothering him anymore.

White bangs clouded his vision slightly, so Danny rushed into the sky, weightless and freed against gravity His ice-cold heart thumped along as the pulsing strengthened the closer he got towards the clinic – his mom's workplace.

"Looks like she's heading home early, regardless." Danny bit out to himself.

Energy thrummed in his hands as he swirled into the building to find the mechanical, ghostly body of the hunter tossing the desks and files aimlessly throughout the rooms. Terrified shrills pierced the air as his altered voice chortled.

"Ah, Ghost-child." Skulker spun around with a smirk painted onto his faux face. "I have been looking for you."

Danny spun a smirk of his own, while he covertly scanned the area for his mother's signature. "In a pregnancy crisis center? I'm a dude, not a girl – you might want to have your eyes checked."

Skulker smashed into him with a flaming punch. Fiery chaos came so close to breaching the hazmat suit that Danny had to wince at the unnatural heat. Ribs complained and his skin screeched, however Danny flipped over Skulker and blasted him through the building.

"I never thought you so low, Skulkie." Danny hissed. "That place is where life begins – what we are is the complete opposite, the other side of consciousness after death. We don't belong near people like them. Got it?"

Skulker merely grinned, trading a blow to his face. The two pounced on each other, meeting the other with a punch, blast or kick, or sometimes – when roulette is played correctly you get all three. Danny slammed into the ground, ectoplasmic fluid creeping down his face.

With a scowl, he burst off the ground and wiped off the ectoplasm. He threw his arms as far apart as he could, drawing up an ectoplasmic shield. This shield didn't just shield Danny it exploded into Skulker, shoving him into the ground. Danny darted down at him and drew him up with his glowing arm. If being thrown down by a shield hadn't been embarrassing enough, the road rage Skulker was currently experiencing made up for that.

Sometimes if one is lucky enough to be near them, they can catch a sarcastic or sassy comment made by Phantom and the angry retort of Skulker.

With one final push to the ground, Danny flipped and whipped out the thermos and hit the button. Wincing at the faint feeling of the Fenton thermos pull, Danny watched the equally bruised and hurt Skulker get sucked into the thermos.

After he clipped the thermos back onto his belt, Danny flew back to the clinic.

Mom.

He helped move the pregnant mothers and workers out of the torn apart building. Diligently, Danny searched and looked for his own mom. Going through the rubble and trash, he flew deeper into the building, his heart slowly catching pace to a normal pulse.

Where was she?

Danny scanned area after area, but nothing – no signature, no familiar presence.

"Phantom!" A scream resounded from outside the clinic.

The warped and battered frame and begun to shake and in all his anxiety Danny hadn't noticed the movement in the beams until just then. Tremor after tremor pulsated amongst the buildings framework until it visibly shattered down on top of him

He barreled out of the building, hoping with all hope that he would spy his mother out amongst the crowd.

He couldn't find her.

Mom.

Someone ran out of the car towards the scene until a stranger stopped her. Danny, floating above them, saw her – his mother – trying to get into the mess of debris and he boyishly grinned.

Satisfied that she would be all right, he rushed back to the Nasty Burger. At this point the sun drifted downwards in the sky, painting the sky an orange color, wafting into the deeper blue. He dove into the back of the restaurant and embraced the human warmth that touched his being, pulling his lungs and heart back into a quicker motion.

Tucker and Sam stood right next to the bus stop in front of food place. Holding out his backpack was Sam. She gave him a warm look and he returned it.

"Ugh, just kiss already!" Tucker whined.

Their faces reddened instantly and they turned on their meatatarian friend. "TUCKER!"

"Stop messing with us about that already!" Sam glowered at their tech friend. "We're friends – just – friends."

After an awkward pause waiting for the bus, Tucker peered at his friend before he rolled his eyes and pointed the bench nearby. Danny rushed to feel his face, only to groan before Tucker could say anything.

Tucker shrugged. "Well, this is one of the reasons we're around, dude. We gotta look after you when you can't take care of yourself."

"I thought you only showed that kind of devotion to your PDAs." Same raised a heavy eyebrow.

Defensively, he pulled his PDA out of his backpack and close to him. "She didn't mean it, Carrie. Sam's not that mean a person."

Danny chuckled, holding his bruised cut with his hand as some sort of tourniquet. With a sigh, Sam pushed him on the bench and took off her backpack. Easily, she pulled out some bandages and cream. Sam rubbed the antibiotic cream on his cut after he cleaned it and patched it up. The threesome sat in silence for a couple minutes before the bus pulled up to the curb.

The gasping doors wheezed open and all three friends joined the few passengers. With money in the bin, the bus driver – Stan – revved the engines and they joined the evening Thursday rush. Sam was the first to leave the boys, she didn't say much, shrugged and smiled before she left. After, Tucker stepped off with a promised of Doom later that night. At the edge of the main populated area of Amity Park was the last bus stop before the next city, here is where Danny got off. He took the next couple of streets and pulled off the bandage, eager to feel the smooth skin underneath. At the end of the dead end street of Lincoln Road sat a little cottage house with a cheery light on at the door step and the delicious wafting smell of enchilada rice.

As he opened the cherry red door into the warmly decorated house, his mother stood by the kitchen doorway. Danny grinned at her and encompassed her with a hug. Many say that Danny was almost the spitting image of his mother. Her dark hair pulled back into a French plait and her sharp blue eyes twinkled and softened at her son. Danny let go of her and they walked into the kitchen.

"So how was the Arcade?"

Danny blinked.

"Oh it was fine, turned out the game wasn't as exciting as we thought."

She hummed and turned towards the frying rice. "Probably a good thing. Your grades need a little less video game and a little more participation. Cut the chicken, Sweetie?"

"Sure," He yanked a drawer open and pulled out a serrated knife and a fork. "How'd work go?"

"It wasn't too shabby, we've got some clean up to do what with the ghost attack and everything."

An ugly sound scraped the air and Danny stopped slicing the knife against the fork. Quickly, he went back to carving the rotisserie. "Sorry… Ghost attack! What ghost attack? You work at a pregnancy center, shouldn't they not attack that kind of place or something? Isn't there some sort of unspoken rule with ghosts and unborn babies or something?"

"Its fine," She laughed, stirring a little more salt into the rice. "But it doesn't matter, no one was hurt, there were births and the only ruined was the work place. And yeah, there should be some sort of a rule, but there isn't. This may be the first attack, but I doubt it will be the last." Her voice hardened at the end of her sentence. Quick as she could, she flipped off the burner and poured the food into a ceramic bowl on the kitchen table. "Ready to eat?" She smiled.

"Yeah, I guess so." He placed the remainder of the chicken on a platter next to the bowl.

They scooped their food and traded conversations about the lighter things of their day – coworkers' jokes, the insufferable Mr. Lancer, friends – and laughed it all up with a glass of milk each. The honey brown walls glowed with the candle lights that inhabited the kitchen and they were shadowed by Danny's hand shadows creating stories across the walls.

Time flew by for the young family and before they knew it some candles began to go out and food needed putting away and dishes needed to be washed. All of this done by song. However poorly or beautifully they sang, Danny's mother and Danny packaged the food and washed and dried the dishes with a smile on their face.

" _From Zero to Hero-"_ She serenaded.

Danny piped in, _"In no time flat!"_

" _Zero to Hero just like that!"_ They finished.

When the last plate clicked on top the family went to the living room. Anna sat down next to the fireplace and scripted away on a piece of paper, her face somber. As he sat down on the couch opposing the fireplace, Danny frowned.

"You good, Mom?"

Anna looked up, some strands falling into her face. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I just need to finish a letter for tomorrow. Which that reminds me, Danny, I've been needing to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" Danny peeked with interest.

"Yes it does have to do with the letter, but" She folded it up and set it on the wooden floor. "No, you cannot read the letter."

She moved to the couch and wrapped her left arm around his shoulders. They sat quietly for a moment. In that moment, Danny kept looking from her to the fire and back again, curiosity flooding his features. Smiling, Anna removed her arm and pushed a little away from him.

Clearing her voice, she began. "We're going to be going to New York once school lets out. Your father's-"

"Hold up, my dad?" Danny shook his head and crossed his arms, "My dad's now in the picture?"

"Sweetie, he's always been in the picture. He's always loved you, and now that you're old enough, we're going to be doing what he always hoped you would do." Anna turned her face to the fire, letting its moving light dance shadows across her face.

He groaned. "I thought we've talked about Dad! I doubt the deadbeat even has anything for us in New York! He's never been around for us, ever! He is one crazed, messed up fruit loop!"

"Your father has never been allowed to be in your life! But he loved you the minute he found out I was pregnant! Now if you're going to continue to speak this way, than you may resign to your room and no computer games."

"Fine!"

He jumped off the couch and launched himself into his bedroom down the hall. With a final growl, he slammed the door shut. Danny glanced in the mirror long enough to see his vivid green eyes haunting him.

On the walk to school the next morning, Sam oddly said little to no words while Tucker yammered almost all the way to school. Danny couldn't quite shake the feeling that someone was watching him. As they passed by City Hall and the shopping district, distracted Danny jolted at his best friend's words.

"Uh…Danny? I didn't know you had a twin." Tucker jutted his thumb towards the shaggy-haired male with the sea-blue eyes.

His lips parted in a gasp before attempted to compose himself, "I-I don't, Tuck."

* * *

 **Love the R &R, Readers! **


	2. Chapter 2

**-Chapter Two-**

 **Who, Invited Doppelganger over here?**

A newspapers, by definition, are the modern day heralds of all sorts of tidings. By extension, however, it also brought new perspective, such as a green-eyed Danny Kern gracing the front pages.

Danny picked it up off the stand and gingerly examined the picture, only to have Sam snatch it away from him.

"It's at least two years old," Sam finally spoke up.

"Two years?" Danny widened his eyes and peered over her shoulder. "What's it say?"

Sam found the blurb in the article and began to read it aloud for them to hear. " _Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson, wanted for question in the Long Island disappearance of his mother two weeks ago, is shown here fleeing from the bus where he accosted several elderly female passengers. The bus exploded on an east New Jersey roadside shortly after Jackson fled the seen. Based on eyewitness accounts, police believe the boy may be traveling with two teenage accomplices. His stepfather Gave Ugliano, has offered a cash reward for information leading to his capture.'_ "

Exploding buses? Disappearing mothers? Danny shook his head. This doppelgänger of his was causing him a headache the size of Vlad's inflated ego. Distantly, Danny could even hear the bell ring, must be time for his consciousness to wake up cause this seemed exhausting.

Ever since Tucker had pointed out the weird looking guy in the papers, Danny couldn't stop seeing him everywhere. He showed up at school, briefly at the cafeteria, everywhere Danny could legally go in the school hours, mystery dude showed up. A mention there, a picture here, he couldn't avoid the strange kid who _looked just like him_.

There he was. Walking down the sidewalk with a grim expression by a couple of trees, Danny gaped. The weird kid who looked like him was right there.

"Mr. Kern, is the tree outside more entertaining or more educational than your literature class? Now tell me, what does Squealer in _Animal Farm_ tell the animals about how Boxer got taken away?" Mr. Lancer kindly redirected his attention with a frown.

Danny opened his mouth to answer but closed it again. "Wasn't it Napoleon who said something, not Squealer?"

"Correct, Mr. Kern, I'm glad to see you actually doing your reading for once."

"Mr. Lancer," Danny raised his hand, "Could I be excused?"

With a sigh and a frown, Mr. Lancer nodded.

While he returned to the front of the classroom to scribble something on the blackboard, Danny darted out into the hall and into the restroom. He transformed, tingling with the electrifying energy – or ectoplasm rather. At the speed of a bullet, he burst through the ceiling and walls intangibly heading for the outside world. Danny swirled and slowly slipped into a landing pattern, lightening his speed and transfiguring his tail into legs. There stood the boy he had seen. Danny landed without a noise and invisibly took in the other's looks.

Wild black hair, a stubborn jaw, and those soft blue-green eyes reminded Danny of someone, whom he couldn't remember at that moment. He flashed into existence next to the T-shirt and jeans clad guy and smirked since he was directly behind him.

"Boo."

"Gahh!" He swung out a pen and the tip of a sword slammed before his face. "What in Hades' beard are you?"

Danny sassed back, "Well what are you doing in Hades' beard?"

He stood there, speechless and began to laugh. He laughed so hard, the stranger began to smack his knee with the hand not holding the sword, and he dropped the sword a little. Clearing his throat and wiping his eyes, the oddball sighed contentedly right before frowning at Danny. "Seriously, though what are you?"

"I'm a ghost." Danny raised a white eyebrow. "What never seen a ghost before?"

Sea eyes smirked, raising his sword back towards Danny's throat in an aggressive manner. "Oh, I've seen ghosts, you just don't look like the ones I've seen before."

His electric ecto-colored eyes blinked. Sword-y didn't look like he was kidding, but then again he had a sword. Wait – how did he get the sword? Didn't he have a pen at first? – Hold it, Kern! Focus. Danny breathed in softly, however deeply, and exhaled with just as little pressure. Was he here to contact the Fentons? …That could be dangerous. Great.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

Percy Jackson, Sword-y's name as Danny remembered vaguely, shrugged. "Nah. Just a dam kid who has some relatives who need help. Again."

Danny nodded. "Phantom." And he offered his white gloved hand.

He lowered his sword and frowned. Just as Danny was about to retract his hand, he took with a full-blown grin. Wait where'd that sword go? "Name's Percy, Percy Jackson."

"What's the Percy stand for?"

"What's Phantom stand for?"

Danny shrugged his shoulders. "Fair enough. Well, as long as you're not causing any trouble, then I'll get going."

"Sounds good," Newly named Percy slipped his hand into his pocket, his other hand twirled a pen between his tan fingers. "Catch you later, Phantom?"

With that Danny felt rather satisfied and blasted into the air towards the school. The class bell rang and he cringed – well, at least it wasn't a ghost fight or the like, then he would have ended up skipping school all together rather than just Lancer's class.

Warmth of humanity tickled his nerve endings as he slipped back to his regular self. And just for effect, he flushed the toilet in the stall and went to go wash his hands. Or at least that's what he wanted to happen. This is what happened instead:

Danny's back groaned as someone threw him against the wall. Laughter rang in the boy's bathroom as the blonde elitist Dash Baxter curled up his first for a sucker punch. This was gonna hurt.

Ah, so much for the warmth of humanity, he felt like the chill of a ghost would have helped the bruise, Dash kindly gave him for Dash's failing grades.

As the bullies left, Danny tottered out the door and to his locker, grabbing some concoction that Sam had cooked up for him a while back. His mom always did tell him, "Life throws lemons, so it always beats being prepared to make some wicked good lemonade." She always did have the best phrases.

Rubbing some on, he ignored the cooling sting and muttered quietly, trying to sort out his thoughts concerning the Percy-kid. He had a sword, and obviously he could use it. Everywhere he looked, there was something to do with Percy and of course he couldn't forget about the weird article sending a man hunt after that kid two years back. Frowning, his innards contorted funny. Something wasn't right.

"Hey, Danny," He swiveled around to see his best friends Tucker and Sam frowning at him. "You okay? What happened back there? A ghost?"

Danny rolled his shoulders back. "Not a ghost, I saw him though. That Percy kid, you know, my double?"

"Well technically speaking he would be more your doppelgänger. But anyway, what'd he say?" Sam crossed her arms.

"How'd you- never mind. He said he was here temporarily." He took out his books for the next class – Algebra _yeah…._ – and shut his locker door. "Percy said he was just passing through, but here's the thing. He's never been to Amity, but he's seen ghosts, different kinds of ghosts!"

"Different types of ghosts?" His friends blinked and spoke almost at the exact same time.

Danny nodded. "Different types of ghosts. But the funny thing is, he had a sword that he could disappear. I know I've met ghosts with swords and I've fought them using swords, but he was using a sword like he was a samurai or something."

While they pondered the sword, Danny couldn't ignore his twisting gut. He frowned, and cracked his fingers against his book. The three of them continued chatting about Sword-guy Percy and what would happen now that he was in town. If he was dangerous like that article said two years ago, then Danny might have to do something he never wanted to do.

"Welcome class!" Ms. Siobhan pleasantly smiled at the class. "Take your seats and will begin by turning in our books to page 394."

He settled down near the door at the end of the classroom and popped open his book. Taking his time, Danny flipped through the pages, all those numbers shifting across the page only strengthened his headache. Even though English was his least favorite class what with the letters blurring and churning like butter in front of his eyes. And of course, Danny mumbled unconsciously to himself, "numbers just had to make no sense to him and scramble like eggs."

Never, ever, ever did Danny let this come to the attention of his friends or family, his mom had enough to deal with and his friends were busy fighting for their lives. Messed up words and letters never seemed like a big deal to him, as long as he managed to pass his classes with at least a C.

"Ms. Johnson, could you describe what the lesson is on in your own words?" Ms. Siobhan gestured to Star.

Star cleared her throat and smiled. "Well it looks like we're supposed to be doing long division with equations instead of just numbers."

"Correct. Our lesson today is a launching point into Algebra II. So we will be learning polynomial division." At the groans she tutted. "Now, now. This is the advanced class. All of you would have had your former math teacher's permission to join this class as by the end of sophomore year we will be prepping for the ACTs. So don't groan and don't mumble, you're all gifted students with a bright future ahead."

Rolling his electric blue eyes, Danny tried his best to concentrate on the problems. Special math class for gifted students because they had a future, sounded like a bunch of baloney to him. He had absolutely no idea how he even got into that class.

Ms. Siobhan squeaked the marker on the whiteboard and began to diligently explain how the numbers and signs interacted in the strange division. Further on she brushed on what it looked like to then take that and work it like a regular problem. She left one problem on the board.

"I want you all to work on this problem and when you're finished, come up front and put your name by at the bottom of the board." The plump woman sat in her swivel chair and began scratching down something on a piece of paper.

With all that in mind, Danny took out his colored pencils and began to painstakingly write down every single part of the problem with different colors. Each same part got the same color. And Danny began to work on the problem at hand.

Time ticked by and names were on the board, Tucker's was the first –no surprise there – and Valerie's next. Before long Sam's name was on the board and other people wrote their name. Time clocked halfway and Ms. Siobhan stood up. Danny finally looked up from his problem and noticed the board. Everyone in the class had written their name on the board except for him.

"Mr. Kern, are you finding the problem all right?"

He sighed. "I am, I just need more time to work on it."

"I see." Ms. Siobhan hummed, her russet-colored eyes staring at him before switching to Tucker. "Now, Mr. Foley, could you explain to the class your answer and how you got your answer?"

Proudly, Tucker went onto to not only do that but effectively give a lecture on why all popular kids will eventually work for nerds and geeks.

Danny blinked at the sudden note on his desk. Once he deciphered the shifting words, he jotted down his own message and passed it back. Again, Sam was worried for him. Not surprising as she seemed to almost always worry about him despite many of his situations being her fault because of her overly aggressive nature.

The bell rang, ending Tucker's speech, and Ms. Siobhan dismissed the class assigning twenty-odd problems. Before he could leave, the red-head math teacher stopped him. "Mr. Kern I wish to speak to you for a moment."

"What is it?"

"You have Dyscalculia, do you not?"

Danny bit his lip. "What makes you think that?"

"Your methods for coping. Do not think for a moment I do not see all my students and all their ways of finding the answers." The middle-aged, short woman tapped a pencil on her desk. "So it doesn't surprise me that that might be the case. Have you found any support group of sorts?"

"I have a mom who's always working," Danny snorted, "and I've got a million and one things to do for school and at home, I don't have time to find support groups or stuff like that."

Ms. Siobhan set the wooden number two pencil down. "We have groups here at school. It is a quiet one that not many people know about, just the teachers and the participating students. It is held every Saturday in the morning at eight. I understand that you many not desire to be a part of it, however please consider it. You would be a lovely addition to the group and perhaps those grades would go upwards."

"I'll think about it." Danny scratched the back of his neck.


	3. Chapter 3

**-Chapter Three-**

 **Sam Makes a Huge Mistake, Again**

Sam Manson.

There are too many words to describe the said best friend of Tucker Foley and Danny Kern.

Danny often went for passionate and loyal – aggressively so.

Tucker went from something more vivid. "She's like a bipolar person. Hardcore loyal and rationally sane, while on the other hand she's violent and mean when you step your foot out of line. Kind of like a big mean mama bear or maybe a mama lioness would be a better word."

In any case, Sam was one of a kind, something that her friends recognized early on and respected.

Something Anna Kern noticed the moment she met the young girl.

Now that Saturday morning, Danny hit the road pretty early, saying he had something he wanted to do. So while off he went, Sam and Tucker found themselves at the Cottage, a little stone-walled house at the end of the street with its soft red velvet shutters and cherry-colored door. So through the door they went and into the quaint little house they walked.

"Morning you two!" Anna looked up from her dusting. "You just missed Danny, he went out for some errands."

"Any idea when he'll be back, Ms. K?" Tucker asked.

She shook her head. "It's Danny, that boy is quite independent, something we all know pretty well."

"That is true." Sam sighed. "Mind if we hang out here for a bit?"

"Mi casa es su casa." Anna smiled wistfully at the teenagers.

Instead of going back to dusting, she left the rag on the oaken side table next to the tan couch and started for the kitchen. She opened the fridge and pulled out fruit, dip, and closed the door. Reaching for on top of the fridge, she grabbed the tortilla chips, poured them in a bowl and brought the snacks out to the living room.

As soon as her bare feet touched the woven carpet, Sam questioned her. "Did you know that Danny uses colored pencils in math?"

"Really?" She blinked her electric blue eyes. "Well I know he used them when he was younger for math and writing, but I didn't think he still did."

"So why does Danny use colored pencils?" Tucker flopped on the couch.

Anna hummed and set the platter of foods on the mismatched, pine coffee table. "He's always had trouble with numbers and letters and his cousin Noah had suggested it to him. I guess it just became a habit for him."

"Huh, interesting."

"So, while we wait for Danny, do you wanna play _Apples to Apples_?" Anna suggested, pulling some fruit out for herself.

On the other side of town, a trudging Danny found himself outside the school library. Sighing dramatically, he yanked the door open and looked around for a group of people. To his surprise, Dash Baxter glared at him from a table.

"Coming to join our little group, Kernolio?" He spat.

Danny rolled his eyes. "Ask Ms. Siobhan, she's the one who invited me."

Speak of the devil and he may appear, Ms. Siobhan popped up from behind a bookcase and smiled kindly at Danny, gesturing to him. "Come in, come in, Daniel, it is wonderful that you came today."

Danny raised an eyebrow but nevertheless, he followed both her and Dash around the bend and towards the back where a round table stood, halfway filled with students. A few teachers were there, probably to help out or to moderate. Mr. Lancer was even there, sitting at a small table by the Geography section with one of the band members – she played the flute if Danny recalled correctly. The table had only five students and a teacher and soon was to have seven students and two teachers, as Danny sat down with two empty seats on either side of him.

"So Danny, do you only have Dyscalculia? Or do you have Dyslexia as well?" Ms. Siobhan asked, folding her hands on the table top.

Danny shrugged. "I've got both."

"Thank you for letting me know." She smiled. "Now we have a teacher here who helps the other student who deals with the same things as you, Mr. Lancer. I am quite sure that he would be glad to help you with your studies."

Before he could object to Mr. Lancer, Ms. Siobhan called for him and he quickly came with a polite, wry smile gracing his aging face – not really gracing, just a wry smile like he really didn't want to be there at all. The moment he caught sight of Danny, he twitched.

"I see you've come to join us, Danny. Now why don't you come join Felicity and I over by the maps section, and let's get you started on that work of yours." Mr. Lancer twitched again.

Danny grimaced, "I thought this was like one of those assistance groups, not a study group. Thanks, anyway but I'm out."

He got up and walked out, feeling quite unimpressed. Yet the moment he reached the door, He could hear the bellowing football player's voice, shouting, "Kern-turd!

"You tell anyone about my dyslexia and I will make your life a living nightmare." He growled out the moment he reached Danny.

Danny nodded. "Right, don't tell anyone."

Dash made the universal "Eyes on you" sign and left with a grumble.

Kicking a rock, Danny made his way downtown, and didn't stop really. His hands planted in his pockets and his eyes wandering everywhere. The sun brightly shone as if it was smiling but Danny glowered back at it. He stumbled backwards and looked right in front of him. Sword-guy, no Percy, right his name was Percy.

"Hey, you all right?" The sea-eyed teen peered at him.

Danny nodded, standing back upright. "Y-yeah, I'm good."

"I'm Percy," He smiled.

Danny blinked. Something there reminded him so much of someone, that smile it emulated somebody but he couldn't quite grasp the answer. Right on the tip of his tongue, he just knew it, but what was it! That name.

"I'm Danny." He offered. "New to Amity?"

Percy nodded and stuck his hands. "It's a pretty interesting place. So what do you think of that Phantom ghost? He seems to be everywhere."

"Well we are the number one ghost town in America, so," He shrugged, "It's a good thing having him, he's protecting us from the ghosts even though he is one."

"Hmm, he seems weird." Percy hummed.

Could it be…? Nope, never mind, that name slipped right from under him. Danny shook his head he couldn't think of who it could be. But something about his gestures, Sam maybe? Nah, he doesn't look anything like Sam. With a sigh, he abandoned the thought process momentarily.

Danny rolled his shoulders. "Well I got to get going, nice meeting you, Percy."

"See you later!" He grinned back.

He took off back home curious about Dash. The blond quarterback didn't seem like the type to have dyslexia, but then again, who does? He had that and Dyscalculia the math version of the disorder. Ah wasn't life just chummy. He frowned.

The streets winded down to the business district where the latest and the greatest were blaring right at the top of everything. Danny shivered and groaned. Ghosts.

Ever since that stupid fieldtrip to the Fenton's Ghost Hunting building, and that stupid dare, Danny's life had never been the same, being able to see the living and the dead's auras, turning into a ghost. Oh yes, life was full of it wasn't it?

He darted into an alley way and hid down behind a trash can. Shifting quickly into the said ghost form, Danny turned invisible and flew high in the sky. He searched dutifully for the villain and almost groaned when he heard, over the loud speakers, the nasally voice of the ghost zone's favorite mad scientist. "Technus!"

He zoomed into the building and landed neatly onto the main shop floor where computers swirled around and people ran screaming. Mad cackling added to the chaos and there Technus hovered, covering himself in the technology, stripping it of its original purpose and adding it to his new high tech armor. He charged his hand with a ghost ray and shouted, "Hey Technus! Haven't you ever heard of waiting in line?"

Danny blasted him and the ghost smashed against the wall, but before he could do anything else, a blur swung a golden point thing into Technus' armor. The ghost howled out and spazzed against the wall. Bug-eyed, Danny stood shocked while Percy yanked his sword out of Technus.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Percy looked at Danny. "I'm helping."

"By killing a ghost?" Danny threw his hands outraged. "You don't kill a ghost! They're not the kind you deal with."

"It'll reform eventually, just like you." Percy held Technus pinned to the wall at sword point.

Danny growled. "Let Technus go, Percy. Ghosts here don't reform, not like what you're used to."

Swishing through the air, Danny took his thermos and in popped the wounded Technus. Percy slashed his sword and Danny turned intangible at barely the right time, getting nicked on the thigh. Danny cried out but gritted his teeth and charged his ecto rays. As he changed into invisibility, Danny let loose the rays, spiraling through the air.

Percy leapt backwards and blocked the other attack with his sword. His hand tilted the sword and his feet shifted as he danced around blocking the ghost attacks and striking back when he could. As a ray hit him the shoulder, Percy snarled and launched a wave at Danny.

The now visible Danny Phantom blocked with his ghost shield and quickly took stock of the situation. He flew outside, with Percy close on his tail. He bit his lip, and turned invisible again, hoping he wouldn't find him this time. And with that, he darted into the Fenton's basement and whooshed Technus back to the ghost zone.

Finally, he relaxed and moved outside into an alleyway and accepted the warmth of life to his dead being, walking amongst the living despite his odd self. Danny blinked and surveyed the area around him. Nothing much there other than some windows, a dumpster, a quiet street and a mewing cat. Danny smiled and bent down. Petting the cat, it rubbed up against him and purred.

"Oh!" He shot up, startling the cat. "Dang it, I got to get home!"

He ran out of the alley way, the hissing cat darting to the side, and out onto the sidewalk. With practiced ease from hunting ghosts for most of freshman year, Danny breathed easier than most and kept up the speed as he sped down the way.

A grunting bus began to hiss and charged its rumbling.

Danny reached out and yelled. "Wait for me! I need to get on that bus!"

It didn't wait. The bus pulled out and Danny reached the bus stop only a touch too late. Groaning, he leaned against the waiting area and sighed.

 _Honk. Honk!_

Jolting forward, Danny spun around and blinked.

There in her cherry red car, Jazz Fenton parked in the bus stop lane. "What are you waiting for, get in!"

With a shrug of his shoulders, he jogged over and hopped in the car. Just as he pulled his buckle over and clicked it into place, he gave the red-head a smile. "I owe you one."

"Well, pass English class with an A and I might just consider that." She smiled back at him. "So where are you off to?"

"Where are you off to?"

Jazz raised an eyebrow. "Me? I just got back from the library, incase my collection of books in the back wasn't evidence enough. I need to write an essay on sociopathic behavior in children and how it affects their developments into successful adulthood and how that then ripples into the lives of those around them."

"So you got what – Is that the _BBC Sherlock_ series?" Danny leaned back to look into the back of the car. "Cool! Me and my mom really love that stuff! She's totally into the main actor Benderner Cranberrycake or whatever his name is."

"Benedict Cumberbatch?" Jazz smirked as she glanced at him.

Danny chuckled. "Yeah, him. Oh yeah, just drop me off at my house, if you don't mind."

"Of course." She turned on the blinker and spun onto Central Ave at the lights. "So how is your school work going?"

"It's all right." Danny bit the inside of his cheek.

Jazz looked at him. "I know I'm just your senior mentor, but I'm also your friend. How is schoolwork coming along?"

"Sheesh, what are you my sister or something? I already said it was fine. Seriously, Jazz, give it a rest."

She pulled along the side of the yard and parked the car. "Give your mom my thanks for the cookies. I don't know how she does it with how busy she is, but we loved her fudge cookies."

"Will do." Danny grinned. "Bye Jazz."

The two waved goodbye amicably and off Danny walked into the house. Opening the door, he groaned. Sam gave him the look and Tucker and his mom didn't look to impressed either.

"Danny, I thought you were only going to be gone until ten or eleven." Anna frowned as she stood up from sitting down on the couch.

Danny narrowed his eyes. "Why, what time is it?"

"It's two-thirteen."

"Oh."

Sam exasperated. "So where did you go? Did it have something to do with yesterday in math?"

"Sam." Danny tried.

"Hold up there, buddy, you're hiding something!" She cut back in. "You never do anything without telling us, so this must be big. If its big that usually means you need help, and you not telling us isn't helping anything, so what's going on with you? Was it what happened back in math? Where did you go?"

"I go where I go, Sam!" He shouted back. "If you listened for just one moment instead of being so angry, you might actually learn something!"

Sam strutted right towards Danny and growled at him. "So now it's my fault? I'm the one to blame because I'm so concerned for my best friend? I've tried listening, but you don't always share, so it's kinda hard, Danny. My parents don't even listen to me! They don't respect me! And here I am trying to respect you, but you're not opening up, you're not trying!"

"Darn it, Sam! I'm Dyslexic and Dyscalculic!"

Tucker pushed his glasses back and said. "Say what?"

* * *

 **This chapter should clear up a few details for y'all.**

 **Anywho, R &R, folks!**


	4. Chapter 4

**-Chapter Four-**

 **Dude! Chill it's Only a Brain Thing. Wait, Mom, You Knew?**

"So, wait, dyslexia is you having a hard time understanding letters and words, right?" Tucker gestured.

Danny nodded. "It's like a part of my brain is unable to tell what they actually are, so it comes up with lame solutions. It's the same with dyscalculia. One of the reasons, "Danny groaned, "That math and I don't get along."

The four stood quietly for a moment in the entry/living room area. The only thing dividing Danny from His mom was the half-wall that led to the bathroom. She bit her lower lip – something Danny picked up, annoyingly – and looked towards the letter that resided on the fireplace mantle. Peering at the letter, Danny narrowed his eyes.

"Let me get this straight," Sam crossed her arms. "You could be acing your classes right now? Because you've been getting Cs and Bs, but if you didn't have dyslexia you could be getting straight As. Huh, didn't really think you were that smart."

"Thanks, Sam, I can always count on your for support." Danny droned out sarcastically.

Sam frowned. "You knew what I meant." With a huff, she continued. "What I don't get is why did you hide it? From your mom, from us, your best friends?"

Danny wavered, repositioning his feet on the floor. Scratching his arm, he turned away from Sam and towards his thoughts. He had hid his dyslexia, just like he hid so many things. He sighed. Sam stood there, furrowing her eyebrows and glaring at him. "Yes Sam, I hide things. It is not unnatural to hide things. I didn't want to be different, you know? I just don't want to stand out too much."

"Well, I'm glad to know what you really think, Danny." Sam stomped right past him and stopped at the door. "I'll be seeing you two at school."

She opened the door and slammed it. Cringing, Danny met Tucker's gaze and he watched his friend sigh.

"You know, she is right, dude. You do hide things from us, and it isn't fair, but," Tucker played with his fingers awkwardly, "I better make sure that Sam isn't going to go kill anything."

Danny hung his head as his only other friend went out the door. Now both of them were angry – not that he hadn't given them reasons, but it was only about his dyslexia and dyscalculia it wasn't life changing or anything. Then again – Sam.

Into the kitchen, he trudged. Pouring himself a cup of coffee, Danny jumped up to sit on the counter top and sipped the liquid elixir of the gods. He kicked his legs and sipped his coffee, staring blankly at the cream-colored wall. The clock ticked away and his heart stooped with every tock.

"Danny? You want to talk?" His mom stood in the kitchen doorway, looking at him with the eyes of an aged woman.

"I don't want to talk, Mom." Danny sighed. "But I guess that's what's gonna happen anyways."

Anna stepped across the threshold and took out a mug from where they normally hung under the cupboards. She poured the rest of the coffee in her mug and took a swig of it. "When I found out I was pregnant, your grandparents wanted me to give you up."

Danny's coffee almost shattered on the ground. Bug-eyed and gaping, he turned to his mother and shook his head.

"They what?"

"I was single when I had you, Danny." Anna didn't meet his shocked face, rather she leaned towards the sink to peer into the window just above it. "They told me I had all this youth I was wasting, in fact they had a family from here willing to adopt you and all I had to do was sign the papers. But I didn't, I took what was left in my savings account and ran with you to Amity Park. I didn't mean to find myself in the same town as the people who were going to adopt you, but I did, and they have been keeping an eye on you for me ever since then."

"Who," Danny swallowed a gulp of steaming black liquid. "Who were they?"

Anna chuckled. "Oh you would have been a Fenton if your grandparents had gotten their wish. But I'm glad they didn't, because I get to raise you and not watch two strangers oversee my child growing up."

Silence and shock filled the room. Oh, his mind buzzed alive and his body stilled. He placed the cup on the counter and paced the kitchen floor. His fingers ran through his hair and Danny kept shaking his head. No way, just no way.

"No offense, but why did you tell me this?"

"Because you're about to understand why you're you. I'm taking you to a camp – a special camp – where you'll meet similar people. But Danny," She turned around to face him, her face somber and void of all emotions. "You tell me immediately if something out of the ordinary happens, okay? And I'm not talking ghosts attacks, or bullies acting up. Call me immediately. I will answer whether I'm at a birth or not."

Danny locked eyes with his mother, her gray eyes swirled with so many emotions, he couldn't identify them all but one stood out the most. His mother was afraid. "I'll let you know, Mom.

He drank up the rest of his coffee and placed the mug near the kitchen sink. "I'll be back, I'm going on a walk."

Anna nodded. "Take your phone with you."

He shrugged his shoulders, returning the gesture. Out of the house he went and off he went, racing down the streets of Amity Park from Lincoln Road to Central Avenue. The sun had started its lonely descent down the skyline and his stomach rumbled. He grimaced, checking his pockets for leftover money.

Down in Amity Park's park, parked a local hot dog stand. Danny marched right on over and purchased one and sat down on a nearby bench, watching the traffic speed by and the day pass. He swallowed the chocking mouthful and coughed lightly, getting it down. Sighing, Danny struggled to think over the day and stuffed his hands in his pockets. With one last look behind him, he headed home.

Danny woke up Sunday morning after a night full of ignorant ghosts who would just not leave him alone! He rubbed his eyes and stomped into the kitchen only to empty the remains of the milk carton into his mouth. Tossing bagels in the toaster, he heated up his coffee and clicked the voice mail button on the house phone.

 _"Morning, kiddo!"_ Ack, rubbing his head he glared at the machine. Too loud for this early in the morning. _"I'm at the clinic, looks like we might be here all day. Danny, I wish I could be back at home, but baby comes when baby wants. So, get your homework done, there's money in the sugar jar for pizza for dinner, oh and remember, call me if anything happens. And I mean anything. Love you, sweetie!"_

Grumbling into his coffee, he drank it up and spread the cream cheese on his toasted bagels. Again, he grimaced. "Toasted – bleck."

So he munched away on the bagels and sipped coffee.

Danny finished his breakfast and trudged the way to his room, getting dressed into a pair of jeans and a green t-shirt. Pulling on his socks and shoes, he doubled checked that the ringer was up and flipped his phone into his pocket.

Making his way to the front door, he locked it and placed the key in the mouth of the creepy toad his mom insist they keep for the spare key's sake. And with that Danny vanished into the woods behind the house, he soaked up the sunlight that glowed through the almost transparent emerald leaves. He rolled the kinks out of his shoulders and threw his hands up in the air, making the best of the sun-filled morning.

"If I hadn't – "He stopped himself right there, lowering his hands and slipped them into his pockets. Slouching his shoulders, Danny sighed and looked up at the sky watching the clouds shift formlessly by the mere touch of the wind.

Shadows encompassed him as he traversed further into the woods until no houses could be seen. Every step took him further and further away into no-man's land, just the way he liked it on quiet mornings. Danny felt the leaves left over from fall crunch underneath his red sneakers and stifled a smile as the birds sang their calls to chirp to their neighbors.

Collapsing in the shade of a white poplar, he picked up a sprig of something that smelled minty. Maybe it was mint, maybe it wasn't that it just smelled that way, but in any case Danny looked back up at the sky and closed his eyes.

Heavy breathing was not something he expected to hear nor was the shaking earth something he expected to feel.

 _"ROAR!"_

Danny shot up in an instant and his voice squeaked – he cringed at the noise – and his blue eyes bulged at the sight.

A minotaur charged after him, and Danny wasted no time in sprinting away from the mythical creature. Racing down the forest paths, Danny briefly checked behind him once again just to make sure the cow-head man wasn't still pursuing him. He yanked his phone and speed-dialed his mom, as he pulled it up to his ear, Danny could hear the angry growls coming from the monster as well as the _bringing_ of the cellphone connecting.

It chirped and he wheezed as she answered the phone. _"Danny? Hon? What's going on?"_

"You know how you said to call just in case anything happened? Well how about an ox-man chasing me in the middle of the woods?"

 _"Get to safety immediately, I'll be there as soon as I can. And when I get there, jump in the car, I'm not going to stop."_

Danny pulled the phone from his ear and glanced at it. "What?"

 _"Love you, son."_

 _Click._

She hung up on him and the ferocious pounding of the hoofs only seconds behind him. Using his ghost powers, he ran through a tree and darted through the forest to some form of safety. Thankfully his house came into view. Sweat trailed down his neck due to June heat and he swerved away from Lincoln street and gave his best jump off the ground – with some assistance of his mediocre flight abilities in human form – and landed on a high up branch.

The minotaur came after him head on and collided into the tree Danny crouched in. Launching himself off of the tree and onto the next he spotted the tree pattern and smirked slightly to himself, flying form tree to tree in human form.

"Yo, ugly!" Danny shouted, taunting not even hidden in his voice. "You got a headache yet? After all you just had a mythical head on collision!"

He circled in the tree tops, only jumping the moment the minotaur hurled himself at that part of the forest. With ease, Danny flipped from tree to tree until only one tree was left standing. Taking a dive to the ground and the bull-man angry and bulldozing into the final tree, Danny transformed and froze the tree solid and it shattered right on top of him.

Releasing the deadly counterpart, Danny raced back to the roads and saw his mom's car making its way down the street. She slowed down to barely under twenty and Danny catapulted himself into her van. Pedal to the metal, she screeched off the curb and out onto the outer roads of the town. As he slammed the door shut, he fell onto the floor bug-eyed.

No freaking way.

The minotaur growled and roared pounding its hoofs onto the ground and reaching with its humanoid hands.

"Hurry, Mom!"

He locked the door and clambered into the front and buckled himself down in shotgun. One quick look directed towards his mother gave him all the answers he needed.

Her ashen face and thin lipped frown matched the firm grip on the wheel and harsh motions. Anna Kern was terrified.

"Mom, I'm here, I'm safe with you, we're gonna be okay."

Her eyes never left the road, but her voice flooded with emotions and she spoke to him in a whisper. "I need to get you to Camp. Then you'll be safe."

"Okay, where's camp?"

"Long Island, New York."

* * *

 **Hey y'all. Meant to get this to you guys way back, however I was unable to which sucks :P Instead you get this and a much longer new chapter before two weeks is up. I'm actually really excited about this next chapter! It'll be a lot of fun.**

 **So I've been meaning to be more interactive with you readers and I've seen DarkPetal16 use this and I think it's a lot of fun so I'm trying it out here**

 **Question: Who would be your Olympic Parent?**


	5. Chapter 5

**-Chapter Five-**

 **My Big Fat Grecian Road Trip (Oh Hades, Make this Quick!)**

Danny grumbled, pulling the blanket over his face and he twisted in his chair. Angry honks and shouting surrounded the vehicle, even his own mother joined in beeping her horn tensely at the other drivers. Finally, they began to move again, and thankfully, in Danny's personal opinion, they had lost big and grouchy way back there where it belonged. With that happy thought in mind, he sat up in his chair and grabbed his now cold burger from that McDonalds stop back in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

"Oh, morning, kiddo." Anna cleared her throat and moved her hands from the top of the steering wheel towards the sides. "Did it wake you?

"No," He yawned as he munched on his burger.

She nodded, sipping her iced coffee. "Blech! Why do I keep buying their coffee! It's disgusting. Why don't you ever remind me of it?"

"Because your reactions are always good." He slyly smirked into his french-fry, devouring it with glee.

Extra salty French fries, a double cheeseburger, and root beer, clear signs of being spoiled, or at least Danny partially took it as that. He glanced at his mother and frowned. Eyes on the wheel then back at her. Swallowing, he looked away and turned on the radio.

"Any good tunes?"

"At ten at night? We'll be lucky to catch the clean stuff."

Nodding, Danny itched to be able to fly he and his mother to wherever in the world they were going too. His nerves tingled, no map in sight and he sighed, sipping again on his soda. Traffic got moving once again, and he stopped tingling for a moment, until he looked outside at the sidewalk. Danny's heart pounded.

Licking its chops, a huge black dog grinned showing its jagged teeth. Lifting its furry heard to the darkened sky, it howled loudly surpassing all the noise in range. Beady red eyes stonily glared once again at Danny and as traffic stopped once again, the dog-beast leaped into the air and pounced on top of their car, scratching the hood.

Mom screeched and slammed her foot down on the brakes, throwing the once moving line into a thundering halt. The beady-eyed dog whined as it swung off of the car. She then tried to move the car forward only for it to pound right on it once again. Scratching the hood, the dog growled rabidly and Danny faced his mom and then the wild animal and scrunched his eyes shut.

"Mom, keep driving."

His hands moved before he did, and he flung himself out on the road, colliding on to the tar. Blanket and all, he dragged himself up and the dog-beast-thing growled at him, snarling it jumped down and began to circle Danny.

Danny grinned, darting into the city of Harrisburg and trampling through traffic and back streets. Howling, the dog chased after him, its heavy feet banging against the stone. He vanished into a dark alley and whispered,

"Going Ghost."

For a brief second it lit, then it was darker than before with a horrendous thrum in the air. Danny blinked and all around him, this pack of snarling and growling dogs, baring their teeth at him.

"Well how was I supposed to know you liked shadows!"

Resisting the urge to throw his hands in the air like a typical teenager, Danny burst into action. As he threw his light in all directions, he flamed his hands and snarled back at the dogs. He whipped his head around and smirked. With one step, he bounded backwards and flipped over the dogs, thanking once again he was half-ghost and could get away with that. Because it would Testlaff's gym class all over again. Ugh.

"How about we play – "Danny threw back into the air and copied himself. Now echoing, in dual voices Danny grinned. "FETCH!"

One went intangible and rested between walls while the other flew off somewhere. Danny wiped his brow as he saw the five dogs raced after his copycat and none stayed behind. One instant later, a human Danny stood on the ground, solid and not in between walls.

"Woo, I should try that out with Cujo, when I get back. I wonder how he'd like it…" Danny scratched his nonexistent facial hair.

Next thing he knew, he dashed down the alley way in search of a minivan with an Illinois license plate. Reaching the main road, Danny pelted down the street and looked at every single license plate until he finally found the blue minivan with an anxious mother shouting at him to get in the car. Well, if he hadn't found her before, he certainly had now.

Anna embraced her son as he climbed in and buckled into the seat. Separating from him, she bonked him on the head. "What in the world did you think you were doing? Saving little ole me from a rabid dog? It is the mother's job to take care of her child, definitely not the other way around until light years in the future when I need dentures."

"Mom, I'm fine. I just lost him in the city and came back as quick as I could." His voice squeaked high at the end of that sentence and he felt his mind rush a million things through and his body encase in coldness. Good morning, thank you, Double.

"Danny?" She felt his forehead, "Sweetie, are you okay?"

Danny brushed her off and ran through the memories one more time in his head, the torrent flooded through him and chills creeped up his spine. Swallowing, Danny saw in his mind's eye the wolfish pack running wild and angry behind him, snapping and snarling, jumping for him.

He jolted. Looking at his mom, he grinned. "Yeah, I'm fine, Mom. Besides isn't traffic moving?"

So, that would explain the smell. Danny's double lost them in the sewer where he could mask his smell. Clever, Sam would be impressed.

One last look at her son, and she began the drive out of Pittsburgh, the two of them communing in silence. He said nothing nor did she, only the radio at eleven at night sang a lullaby. Clicking on her blinker, the two of them drove onto the highway and off into the black night without a star in the sky.

Danny took out his phone from his pocket and groaned. The light blinked and he opened his cell to check his messages. Apparently Sam and Tucker blew up his phone, with phone calls and text messages. He looked through them all and chuckled. So, it looks like they had missed him. He answered back some of the texts, turned off his phone and placed it back into his pocket with a faint smile.

Rewinding through the memories he received, Danny help but recall that black dog from somewhere. He chewed his lower lip and thought.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked.

Danny glimpsed at her. "Why did you tell me to call you in case of anything unusual?"

"Because of your father. He has – "She grimaced, "unfortunate relations."

He rolled his eyes, "Just what I wanted, crazy relatives." He sighed, and then turned to face his mother. "What about the minotaur and creepy dog? No offense, but if one of them is secretly my uncle, I'm running far away."

"Don't say the names!" Anna hissed

Danny jerked back and blinked as Anna put the pedal to the medal. Wide-eyed and gaping, he stared at her. Her face pulled itself into a ridged cringe, and her grip on the wheel tightened. Spinning wheels down the highway, they flew well over ninety, all the more reason to be glad that Danny buckled his seatbelt.

"Why can't I?" He violently turned off the radio. "What's so wrong with saying their names. That's all they are, names, right?"

Anna leaned back, her movements still crisp and frigid, however her face softened slightly and she closed her eyes briefly. "Names bring power. Call someone or something by their name and it gives them more power, it can cause fear or love or hate. Names are powerful. That's why you shouldn't call them by their names."

Mulling over this, Danny hesitantly questioned. "What does this have to do with my dad?"

"Everything." She changed lanes. "But I'll explain once I get you there in one piece."

"Next you'll be saying he's one of those Greek guys in the bed sheet."

He took out some more fries – disgustingly cold by now – and chomped on them, wishing for some ketchup. While he sipped down the remains of his watery-drink, his phone buzzed to life.

"Tucker?" Danny narrowed his eyes as he answered the phone. "Woah, woah, slow down."

Anna looked briefly at him, "What's going on?"

"I can't do anything, Tuck. I'm miles away. Huh? Oh, yeah, impromptu – slash – forced field trip. Mom sprung this family gathering on me." Danny huffed, his chest filling up with tense energy. "Look, I just told you, I'm miles away, I can't do anything! You guys will just have to sort things out for yourselves. I'm sorry.

He inhaled deeply and exhaled, "I'll talk to you later, Tuck. Yeah, night."

"What's going on?" Anna repeated more firmly this time around.

"There are some ghosts around town, and they wanted to make sure I was okay and wanted to see if I could help out any – you know those ghost hunting lessons you made me take back in the day?"

Anna narrowed her eyes and nodded. "I see,"

He sighed and shifted to stare out the window. Midnight in Pennsylvania could not go by fast enough. His heart and head already hurt and his mom's frown didn't help any. Taking out his phone, he texted Tucker and Sam details of the creepy dog, apologized profusely, and put it away. Closing his blue eyes, Danny uneasily collapsed into sleep.

 _Danny lunged forward and breathed deeply. Gasping for breath, he closed his eyes and pinched his nose bridge. "Man, that was the weirdest dream. I mean c'mon, Greek monsters? Dad's family? Being almost adopted by the Fentons? Weird."_

 _Opening his eyes, he jumped. Heartbeat blaring in his ears, he shakes as the image on the wall moves with him. Danny's Ghost Half creeps towards him and Danny backs up until he's right against the wall. A sickening crack pierces the air and Danny chokes back vomit. His ghostly side's head slides right off and broken bone from his spine splinters the open neck and head, yet it smirks._

 _"I've missed you." Shadows swallowed Danny's bedroom whole, he could no longer see his dresser, his Nasa posters, or even his hand in front of his face. "Daddy's come home and he wants to see his sonny boy." The emerald glow from his eyes lit._

 _Shivers creeped up his spine and Danny swallowed, trying to turn ghost. Every attempt failed, pathetically, Danny sat a helpless human._

 _"Uncle wants something." The cut off head grumbled, its mouth moving. "You're the only one who has it."_

 _"I don't have it, Phantom." Danny wrestled against the sudden restraints that firmly held him against the wall._

 _They dropped from that room through the earth and Danny tumbled onto the cracking ground spitting out blood from his mouth. His ghostly half nowhere to be seen though darkness weighed him down, spilling out as tentacles, groping the ground for a grip. Yanked upwards by the force of the shadows, Danny gasped and couldn't move._

 _Every single part of this place echoed one phrase._

 _"GIVE._

 _Fire flew up from the ground and swirled into a sword shape._

 _"IT._

 _The fire sword lunged upwards then down, torpedoing towards him._

 _"TO._

 _Danny's heart beat so fast he couldn't breathe. Nothing felt anymore horrifying as the weight of never seeing his mother, or his friends ever again. Bracing himself for impact, Danny bravely closed his eyes and breathed his last._

 _"ME!"_

Breathing, Danny's eyes flew open and he gasped to life. What the – Danny pressed his hand against his thundering chest and swallowed, looking around.

"Danny? You all right?" Anna watched him for a second.

He shook, nodding to his mother. That dream, it – it felt so real. He could still feel the heat from the near scorching.

Finally, Danny looked out the window and blinked. His eyes bulged at the sight of New York City at four in the morning. Truly, it was the city that never slept.

* * *

 **Happy Fourth to Americans!**

 **Here's your bonus chapter that I literally just finished for you guys. Hope you enjoy it.**

 **Q: If you could have the powers of any of the Danny Phantom villains, who would it be?**

 **A: I'm an Apollo kid, and proud to be one, well except for the whole Apollo as a dad thing. BTW seriously read the "Trials of Apollo", I cried it was so good!**

 **Catch you next chapter!**

 **R &R**


	6. Chapter 6

**-Chapter Six-**

 **Family…Reunion?**

Percy Jackson knew four things in life, four absolute truths.

1\. His mom made the best blue cookies in the world.

2\. Annabeth was the world's greatest girlfriend

3\. The gods hated him – except for some, but Zeus – yeah, Zeus definitely hated him

And four? Well, Percy Jackson knew things happened for a reason, even when they didn't make sense. Like right now.

He clashed his sword with one of Hermes' kids, growling as they shrieked, the steel grinding against the other. His best friends Grover and Annabeth as well as other campers cheered him on while others rooted for the other guy – Jesse. Leaping back, Percy smirked.

"Get him, Percy!" Annabeth shouted amongst the crowd.

So, originally, this was supposed to be a friendly sparring match. Yeah...that didn't quite happen. Or at least to Percy's recollection, it wasn't supposed to be the way it turned out to be. Clarisse – as always – egged on Jesse and all of a sudden most of the Ares kids were doing that too, add some of the Hermes and insults and tada! You have sampled Dish a la Try to Beat up Percy. Pfft. Thanks.

Percy licked his lips and swung his sword down on top of Jesse's. Forcing him down quickly, Percy made quick of him, tripping his sword out of his hands. Quickly, he felt the sword meet skin and smirked. "Do you yield?"

"Sure…."

Grinning, Percy set his sword tip down on to the ground. He hit the ground, his back banging against the dirt and Percy felt cold metal against his neck. Looking up wards, he sighed. There stood a confident Jesse.

"After you yield, Percy Jackson."

"Fine," He rolled his sea green eyes. "I give."

Jesse slid his sword into his scabbard and pulled Percy up. The crowd began to disperse but a glowering Percy grumbled all the way over to the river.

Annabeth met him on the way and let him lean onto her. After a moment, she huffed. "You could have defeated him easily."

"Easily? Well you are the one with head after all."

She shot a look at him. Dropping him, Annabeth pinched her nose bridge. "Well you could have easily done so if you had done, but you're too nice to people."

"Well someone has to be nice."

She rolled her eyes as they stepped down to the river. He reached out his hand let the water heal him. It did a magical thing and felt warm. Like Jacuzzi water, but less grumbly. Smiling, Percy relaxed a little more and looked at blonde daughter of Athena, his best friend.

"So tell me the magical way I could have one, O Wise One of the Owls."

Shooting him another look, Annabeth cleared her throat. "If you hadn't taken your time, and used full impact since at the beginning, it would have been over much sooner. Your fault was that you let him take advantage of you in that last bit. Knowing he was a son of Hermes should have alerted you to the thieving capacities and – "

"Woah, slow down!" Percy held his head. "Mind speaking English?"

"I am speaking English."

"Could you speak Common English? Not fancy English, 'Would you like a crumpet with your tea, madam.'" He poorly imitated with a posh English accent.

She smacked him on the head.

"AH!" A scream resounded from the camp entrance.

A really painful one that reminded him of a goat getting its leg chewed off while alive. He shuddered.

Annabeth looked at Percy and he nodded. "Something fishy is going on here."

"It'd be wise to see what's going on."

They sprinted from the river to the Big House. All around a large group of campers surrounded the screamer, no one getting too close to the person. As he neared, Percy felt something crawl up his spine. The commotion turned out to be a semi-screaming black haired kid with icy eyes. As he noticed Percy jog towards him and the situation, he calmed down considerably. His gaze alone made Percy shiver. Hesitantly, but with a grin, Percy Jackson stepped forward.

"Percy Jackson." He stopped short.

Wait a second. Was he famous or something?

Percy blinked. "Do I know you?" He peered inquisitively at the new kid.

"Danny Kern" The guy cocked his head. "We met back at Amity Park, Illinois, remember?"

"I've never been to Illinois." He scratched his head. "Sorry, nope. You might look familiar but, I've never met you.

"Anyway, we should go meet Mr. D and Chiron. I'm kinda surprised they're not here already."

Mutely, Danny nodded, falling in line right behind him. Some campers walked behind them, whispering out rumors. Percy glanced backwards and rolled his eyes. Some Aphrodite girls were ogling the newbie. Hey, maybe he'll be good at fighting. After that whole debacle last time, it'd be good not to fight someone he had fought way too many times before. Percy clenched and unclenched his hands, his chest heavy from lack of conversation. Without conversing once, Percy led the way to the Big House where they resided. All this not talking made him anxious. So many questions like –

"Why were you screaming back there?"

Danny hung his head and muttered.

Percy frowned and slowed down till he was right next to him. "Huh? What'd you say?"

"Percy Jackson." The familiar ancient voice of Chiron wearily voiced. The two stopped short and Percy could feel Danny tense up right beside him. "Who is this?"

"Oh this is," Awkwardly, he chuckled, "Uh – What was your name again?"

Danny deadpanned at the son of Poseidon. Taking a deep breath, he answered oozing confidence despite his meek stance. "I'm Danny Kern. My mother said I am supposed to be meeting family here."

Percy blinked. And blinked again. This guy reminded him of someone. Someone familiar, but he couldn't quite grasp it. Something he should know. Then again, Annabeth kept telling him things he should know but he didn't pay much attention – unless life or death or Titans. Ah yes, that was a fun day. Not. Brushing his thoughts away as if it was a cloud, Percy stared blatantly at Danny until he cringed. Crap! Stop giving that creepy glare! It's weird….

"Kern. I recognize that name." Chiron murmured. "Regardless, welcome to Camp Halfblood. Your mother did the right thing by sending you to us. I have a video for you to watch inside."

Mr. D, sitting on the deck by the pinochle game, narrowed his eyes at Danny. While Percy contemplated everything that was going on, he almost missed Mr. D get out of his chair and walk bent over towards Danny, sipping on his diet coke.

"David Corn. Hmph." He wrinkled his nose. "Won't last a day here."

Danny twitched. "My name is Danny, meatball head."

"Daniel, that is Dionysus, god of wine, show respect!" Chiron chided.

"So why are you called Mr. D then? Got tired of having a long name?" Danny raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest.

Huh. Don't see too many demigods doing that, especially considering last time – last time he threatened to zap every one into Merco or something fancy sounding wine. Percy rolled his shoulders and tilted his head to the side, watching as everything went on right in front of him.

Mr. D snarled. "Watch it, brat. You'll end up in a bottle of Merlot if you don't pay attention."

"I have ADHD, paying attention isn't really my thing." Danny quipped.

Percy snapped his fingers. Everyone turned their heads to look at his entrance into the conversation. Licking his lips, Percy grinned. "That's what it's called! Merlot!"

Staring at everyone in confusion, Percy narrowed his eyes. Why did they shake their heads or slap their foreheads? They all seemed so disappointed for some reason or another. With a shrug, he continued on the conversation as if nothing had happened.

"I didn't get to see the Orientation video, so you'll have to tell me how it is." He chatted to Danny. "When I first arrived. Well…" He scratched the nape of his neck, "Annabeth told me everything after I recovered from the cow man."

"A minotaur?" Danny quizzed, his eyes lit up in a searching manner, and those intense eyes mirrored his own.

Chiron coughed into his fist. "Names are powerful, child. It is best not to mention them."

"Yeah, just like we call y'know Harps the Kindly Ones. Though I still don't get why."

With a sigh, Chiron finished the conversation and brought Danny inside to watch the Orientation video. Supposedly, Apollo himself directed the video which Percy kinda wished he could have watched it. Danny was so lucky to see it. Or maybe not, considering Apollo disguised himself as a 'Fred' once. Shaking his head softly, Percy chuckled. Apollo was weird.

That being said and done, Percy swaggered down to well wherever he felt like. He didn't really have a direction, just going about his way around the camp, noticing all the campers and what they were doing. Doing that, seeing them happy and busy with their siblings and friends made him smile gently. Everything that they did to make it this far really was worth it. Something Percy never told anyone, not even his own mother or Annabeth: Percy was never sure if at the end of the day, everything would be worth it. That thought constantly drove him to second guessing many of his own decisions that Annabeth didn't have a hand in. Thinking about Annabeth, Percy waved to his other best friend as the daughter of Athena was probably off with her siblings or something.

The red-head satyr grinned right back and darted right to him. "Percy."

"Grover!"

"So what was going down by the Big House?" Grover mentioned, absently chewing on an apple.

Percy shrugged. "New guy freaked out when he showed up is my guess. But he's got this creepy stare."

"Creepy stare?" Grover straightened, a little more intrigued.

"Yeah, kinda like he could see right through you, like a ghost. Almost reminded me of the man downstairs."

"Weird."

He nodded, oddly pizza floated into his head. Cheesey and gooey, blue sauce, and plenty of yumminess. "Mm."

Slightly salivating, Percy jolted slightly as he noticed Grover watching him oddly.

"What's up, dude?"

"You're drooling. Again." Grover stated flatly.

He touched his chin and felt some wet saliva. Quickly, he wiped his skin and looked back his buddy. "Good?"

"Yeah."

Percy and Grover sauntered across Camp Halfblood, talking about this, that, and the other thing, but as they came up beside the Hermes Cabin, Percy stopped. Grover opened his mouth to say something, but Percy placed his hand over it and a finger to his own lips. "Shh!" So they stood quietly as some voices came clearer sounding to them.

 _"That new kid. He looks like Jackson."_

 _"Could he be another Big Three kid, I mean he looks like – HEY! Travis!"_

 _"Hehe, sorry, noob."_

 _"It's like seeing double, but that other guy…his eyes are creepy."_

 _"Not to mention he just felt really weird."_

Swirling in his ADHD brain were all sorts of thoughts and nonsense. Maybe that kid did look like him, but that didn't explain how he knew Percy or even claimed to know him from that Amenity place? Enmity Play? Sighing, Percy rubbed his head and tried to think of better thoughts. Like Pizza. Who didn't like Pizza? What if weird look-a-like didn't like pizza OR blue food? Percy looked at a confused Grover as they started to continue walking.

Unfortunately, the rumors had already spread around camp – Thank you, Aphrodite kids. You really know how to spread the word around – and Percy couldn't avoid hearing about the new guy Danny and how much they looked alike. However, Percy would scratch his head at if they looked a like, because they didn't. Danny had black hair and startling, intense blue eyes and this creepy presence. And Percy didn't think he was like that. At all. Besides, if Poseidon had another kid, he'd tell Percy, right?

"Oh, Percy, is that him?" Grover questioned

He looked up to see Danny jogging down the hill, hardly breaking a sweat or panting, to come greet him. Once Danny reached them, he turned to Grover and inquisitively looked at him. "You're a satyr, I take it?"

"No he's half donkey, he just didn't want anyone to know." Percy rolled his eyes.

Some random camper guffawed annoyingly while Grover stood there awkwardly. "Burn!"

Danny raised his eyebrows. "You and what fire? Last I heard, you're a Poseidon kid."

"Oh, you're gonna fit in just great," Percy chuckled. "So, you looking for Cabin Eleven?"

Danny nodded. "That's the Hermes Cabin, or at least that's what Chiron told me."

"Just be careful, you may find your possessions nicked." Percy warned.

* * *

 **Hey guys! I switched things up a little, hope you like the new fresh perspective!**

 **A: I kinda want Vlad's powers because then I can be a halfa and that would be awesome.**

 **Q: Would would make an awesome theme song for the Percy Jackson** **Series?**

 **See you all soon with another chapter! R &R!**


	7. Chapter 7

**-Chapter Seven-**

 **Teen Angst Sucks**

Danny Kern slipped out of the cabin and wandered off through the yard. His blue eyes took in everything and he smiled dimly, his heart heavy and his thoughts swimming. Through the grass down to the theater the boy traipsed to the seating and sat down on cold marble. Odd, why would marble be at a Greek Camp? At least that was a brief thought before it dawned on him at two in the morning that this was a camp for the demigods of the Greek gods. Shaking his head, Danny bent over and studied the patterns, allowing the darkness of night to cover him like a blanket. Something felt so sure and safe, as if Danny had been wrapped in a hug.

Turning upwards, he took in the night sky. Constellations held more meaning now. Somewhere up there, he was probably related to a hero in the stars and not just related but one could even have been his half-sibling. For all Danny knew, he could have had a brother or a sister by his dad. Judging by how he behaved and the fact that the Big Three weren't supposed to have kids, he was probably a kid of Hermes or maybe Apollo (well his witty comebacks were pretty awesome).

"Well, now I know why I have a deadbeat for a father." He sighed, blowing excess breath into the chilled night air.

Now the Hermes Cabin had given him some space – the floor. He shared said space with another camper a kid named Eli, an unclaimed like himself. Not many people really went near Danny and definitely gave him breathing space but it was so crowded in there he had to get out and feel at peace without all that snoring.

"Danny?"

He whipped his head around and looked at the centaur mentor Chiron. "Oh, hey, didn't realize anybody else would be up this late."

"Normally, I am not, however you appeared to need some company." Chiron addressed.

Danny shrugged. "I'm good, but thanks."

"What happened to your mother on the way here?" Chiron quietly inquired. "Your screams had to be caused by something."

Danny chewed on his bottom lip. In that moment, he found himself hoping that Desiree would show up and he could wish for the last few minutes to rewind so he could avoid this whole conversation. Screw that, he wanted the whole past two days to go backwards. Maybe he could get Clockwork to rewind time for him, make sure this whole camp thing didn't happen.

"I don't want to talk about it."

The ancient teacher nodded. "I recognized the name Kern because I taught your mother."

"Wait, what?" Danny stared at Chiron. "No. no, no, don't tell me _she's_ a demigod too!"

"No, just a mortal, not even clear sighted." Chiron chuckled. "I was teaching her class while on the lookout for a demigod. However, she was one of my brightest students, learning Greek and Latin faster than most. You see, if I wasn't aware that she was a mortal, I would have assumed her a legacy with her ability to learn languages so fast, especially the old ones."

He pondered this for a moment. Well that explained why he learned Esperanto so quickly as well as Greek and Latin. Many ghosts still used the languages, in fact they were the Ghost Zone's official languages, including English. It wasn't too far a stretch to assume that's where he got that skill from his mother. Huh, she kept a lot of secrets from him. Like what exactly was in the enchilada rice?

Danny shrugged his shoulders and leaned back against another seat. "My mom is one special lady."

"That she is." The eldest son of Kronos nodded. "You should get some sleep, Danny. The sun will be rising in a few hours and we have a game of Capture the Flag planned for tonight. You will be needing all your strength."

"Ah c'mon Chiron, quitting horsing around, I don't need that much sleep." Danny quipped.

Chiron raised a thick eyebrow at the boy.

"What?" Danny demanded before muttering, "It was a good one." In a louder voice, he sighed. "All right, I'm going back to the cramped cabin eleven. Night."

He didn't watch Chiron clip-clop away, nor did he listen for his goodnight closing remark, no Danny waited for complete silence to overtake him. Before he had planned to follow the smell of the ocean and journey towards the vibrant enigma of soothing comfort and roaring pain. Now, the half-ghost stood up on the marble and walked, not waiting for anything else nor waiting for anyone else.

What Chiron didn't get and what he never would understand was that as a half-ghost Danny required a couple hours of sleep every night however his food consumption increased dramatically since the incident. That still had Danny (and others) scratching his head as to how being half dead caused him to be hungrier. Tucker suggested it was due to him needing more energy to change forms. Sam offered the idea that even ghosts need to consume something and that his power for his core came from his human food. Shrugging his shoulders, Danny just didn't get it.

As originally planned, Danny would have headed from the Amphitheatre to the beach, yet he decided to actually get some sleep. Especially if there was a game going on tomorrow.

He woke up to an excited and yelling mayhem and all of the Hermes' Cabin rushing outside for breakfast. Disturbed by the amount of joy most of his cabin mates held for the morning, Danny shifted so his face was directly on the pillow, blocking out the sun. He felt someone touch him and shake him. Danny growled.

"Time to get up, newbie." The voice said.

Mornings. Danny despised mornings.

"You're going to miss breakfast if you don't hurry." The voice added, sounding suspiciously like the only guy who actually went near him, Eli.

Groaning, he turned over and looked up, blinking in the bright rays of the sun. He got up and glared at the twelve-year-old kid who woke him. Eli shrugged harmlessly and repeated the missing breakfast part of his wake up call. Nodding, Danny shifted over into a corner and changed his shirt into a cleaner one. Lifting the bright orange shirt over his head, he pulled quickly pulled it down before anyone could ask any unnecessary questions.

"What was that, new guy?" The Korean-lilted voice of his brave cabin mate inquired.

Danny turned his head to see the plaited head of his Asian cabin mate. He was probably a son of Athena with that kind of curiosity. Speaking of which, who was his Dad? Seriously doubting it was one of the Big Three, c'mon, how cliché would that be? Besides they made that whole oath thing that was explained in that weird Orientation video.

Holding back a growl, Danny sighed. "None of your business, Li."

"How long have you known you were a demigod?" Li continued his inquisition.

Awkward. Didn't he just tell the guy it was none of his business? Sigh. Danny rolled his shoulders and stepped closer to the door before turning to look into the shorter kid's large round black eyes.

"I think I hear breakfast calling my name." Danny turned attention. "I should probably go before it's gone!"

With that, Danny skedaddled outside and into the bright, horrific rays of the sun. Okay, perhaps he had spent too much time around Sam. Though he couldn't deny her being right on many topics, including her view on mornings. Evil, especially after a hard night of fighting. He bit his lower lip and marched forward to the pavilion that stood close to the sea. The air was full of the smell of the sea, something he couldn't get enough of, living in the middle of Nowhere, America.

He sat down at one of the longest tables – Cabin Eleven's table – and saw the nymphs begin to serve breakfast. Well, at least it wasn't toast. He hated toast. Blech. Strawberries, grapes, fresh bread, and cheese piled up on his plate and he listened as the people in the pavilion lifted up their goblets and commanded for whatever drink they wanted. Some stood up and went to the fire in the middle and threw some food in and offered it up to one of the gods.

He lifted his own chalice and voiced, "Water."

A few of the demigods gave him looks for such bland drink, he shrugged and drank it. One of them, at his table, elbowed Danny. Shooting the girl a glare, she hesitated a little before frowning at him.

"It's customary to give the gods a portion of your food before you eat it."

"Why?"

She raised a red eyebrow. "What do you mean why? It's tradition and a bad idea to get on their bad side."

"But I like my food," He whined. Seeing her brown eyes narrow at him, he huffed. "Fine." He did not like the fact that she reminded him of Jazz Fenton from back home.

Getting up, Danny swaggered over to the fire, plate in hand, and offered up some food. "To my father, whoever the heck he is."

The flame surged a little higher as the offering fell into its depths. His nose twitched as some odd smell he couldn't place, but regardless, he sat back down at his table. More of his relatives had come by, most shouting out or recklessly passing things. Hermes Table resembled a food fight by the end of breakfast. And in all of that Danny sat at the end munching on his fruits and bread, trying to finish it calmly.

His heart felt heavy in his chest and he bounced his food, bouncing his vision from camper to camper. This – this tension filled the chest cavity and he straightened rigidly, glaring at the Hermes' and undetermineds.

"Wow, are you angsty or something, greenhorn?" Some southern hillbilly with a lousy accent spat into his chalice. "I've had cows more carefree than you."

"Well, I'd hate to milk the comparison for all it's worth, redneck." Danny deadpanned. "But seriously, you're in the city not the country. Farming isn't a big deal here."

Redneck guy spat another swad of spit into his goblet and dryly remarked. "Your puns stink."

Danny stood up. "Don't make fun of my puns! They are awesome!" He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded to himself. "I am king at that."

"You're lame."

Growling, Danny felt a slight tinge of pride as he cringed under his glare. Though, now that he thought about it, many people did, especially here. Did he do something? Scratching the back of his head, Danny walked off from the Dining Pavilion and trudged towards the sea, not caring for the many curious eyes watching him leave. Something didn't feel quite right, and he had to figure it out.

Sea spray smelt phenomenal, particularly now when the sun had risen and the world was busy. He had the whole beach to himself, so he took a seat in the sand and laid down in the sunshine despite the intensity of the sunbeams. Okay, on second thoughts, the shade might be better. Scooching into a shady spot, he considered that Apollo was most likely not his dad. For that he felt thankful. Not in any disrespect to the Apollo kids, but with his history as a half ghost and his adventures, the chance of him actually being a "Little sun spot" were nil to zero. Nada a chance.

He considered who might his mom actually have liked in the whole entire pantheon of Greek gods, curiosity nipping at his mental heels. Well Hades was obviously out as well as Zeus and Poseidon. The Big Three had promised not to have any more demigod kids, or so they had claimed in the Orientation video (it sucked Apollo! Get a new director) so that was clearly out. Mr. D had no love for demigods, that was clear, besides how could he even get out of camp to go to New England where his mom lived? No chance, no way.

While he spun around in circles trying to figure out whom his father was, he hadn't noticed the kid Percy come alongside him and take up a spot. He almost jumped and had to withhold his reflexes to attack the poor kid.

"Seriously, dude! Don't sneak up on me like that!" Danny cringed internally at being caught unaware.

Percy rolled his sea-colored eyes. Odd, they seemed to match the sea, whatever color it was at that moment. "So what was with that thing at breakfast?"

"We're not friends, y'know," Danny flickered his gaze towards the sea, his frown coming back to mar his once peaceful face. "You don't have to do anything."

"I know, but you seem like you need a friend."

Danny chuckled, his frown turning into a drooping smile, "Oh trust me, I have friends. Just not here. Most people seem scared of me."

At first he didn't expect Percy to answer. He certainly hadn't expected Percy to beam at him or end up laughing. Most of all, he hadn't expected himself to start laughing – even just a little with the strange kid that didn't recognize him.

"You? Scary? Please," Percy guffawed. "I've seen Hades and his dominion. You're about as scary as a butterfly compared to that guy."

A butterfly? The defeater of ghosts was being compared to being as scary as a butterfly. Oh he joined in Percy's contagious laughter. The two of them chuckled, leaning over at the idea that the guy as with an icy glare – a chilling, scary glare that made your spine creep with crawlies was as intimidating as a butterfly was hilarious.

Once they ended their little fit, Danny turned serious again on Percy and looked straight into his trusting eyes. "Do you seriously not recognize me. Because I swear I've met you before in Amity, you had this disappearing sword and you were on some family mission (which now I get that part because we are somehow related). It had to have been you. The guy I met, looked just like you."

"I've never been to Amity, I haven't been anywhere out of New York for a while now." Percy shrugged his shoulders. "It's the end of summer, I'm going back to New York City to be with my mom until school starts up again, besides I've been here for the last couple weeks."

"Are you sure?"

"Definitely."

"Then who did I meet last week?"

* * *

 **I'm back with another chapter and am thrilled to see so many people following and favoriting this story! I had no idea that this would actually go anywhere. So exciting!**

 **A: I think 'E for Extinction' by Thousand Foot Krutch would make and excellent theme song**

 **Q: What do you think happened to Danny's mother?**

 **Well that's it for now, I'll see you guys next chapter! R &R**


	8. Chapter 8

**-Chapter Eight-**

 **I've Never Been Much of Weapons Person. It Shows**

Over the next couple hours, Danny had since left Percy (though the kid kept watching him from a distance) and moved on to what his schedule was. When Travis, the other head counselor because one wasn't enough…?, gave him his camp schedule he groaned.

 _08:00 AM - Breakfast and Cabin Inspection_

 _09:00 AM – 10:00 AM - Archery w/Chiron_

 _10:00 AM – 11:00 AM - Sword & Shield w/Clarisse_

 _11:00 AM - 01:00 PM - Winged HorseBack Riding w/Demeter Cabin_

 _01:00 PM – 02:00 PM - Monster Assault Techniques W/Hermes Cabin_

 _02:00 PM – 04:00 PM - Free Choice_

 _04:00 PM – 05:00 PM - Swim & Beach Time w/ the Nereids_

 _05:00 PM – 06:00 PM - Free Time. Volleyball. Cabin Clean Up_

 _06:00 PM – 09:00 PM - Capture the Flag_

 _09:00 PM – 10:00 PM - Sing-a-long and Bonfire w/Apollo Cabin_

 _10:00 PM - Prepare for Bed_

Well it wasn't the worst camp schedule he had ever seen, Danny would give them that. However, he wasn't sure if he had the time of day to do everything on here. His nose twitched and he glowered, crunching the paper with his mighty grip. The last leg of the trip flew into his mind's eye and he eagerly hurried to his archery practice. Shaking his head, the images wouldn't stop replaying in his head and his thoughts kept whispering.

Deep back in the darkest corner of his mind, Danny could hear his nightmare chuckle. Pressing on to the archery field, it taunted him and laughed at him. Eyes darkened considerably and most people were careful to stand away from him. He could understand why.

Down by the Combat arena where Danny could hear Clarisse drilling the other campers, stood targets. Next to the targets were most of his cabin, or at least he assumed as much maybe there were some other cabins there as well, and their archery teacher, Chiron. He passed the sweet smelling strawberry field. All of the strawberries were so plump and red. Danny felt his mouth water, it looked really good. Regardless of how tasty they looked, he continued to the archery field where Chiron turned to greet him.

Mutters of campers whispered among the crowd. Already, Danny seemed to have gained a presence at the camp. That was not on his agenda.

"Glad to see that you arrived, Danny, I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up." Chiron cheerfully smiled at the glowering boy.

Danny shrugged. Now that his mood was worse than before, he didn't attempt to pick up the bow from its place. A raised eyebrow from the white centaur and many looks from his cabin mates and possible siblings/cousins, still no movement to pick up a bow. Without further ado, Chiron looked at Danny and exhaled.

"If you could please select a bow, I would prefer to get started on this lesson."

The new boy frowned. "Actually, it might be best if I don't touch weapons."

"Afraid of getting hurt, newbie?" sneered a red head with freckles that looked like spray on Cheetos.

"Actually my _concern_ is more for you guys. I don't want to brag or nothing, but you guys would make better targets than the actual one." Danny glared at the red head.

One of the kids, the one who bunked with him, chuckled. "So you what you're saying is that you stink with archery?"

At this point, Danny's eyes were threatening green so he picked up a bow and slipped on an arrow and shot at the target. It completely missed the intended goal and went towards one of the campers. She screeched and stood there completely frozen until wind came out of nowhere and this guy blows on his pointer finger like it's a gun.

Most people openly gape at him while others simply blink.

With a smirk, the mysterious savior winks at the ladies. "I'm a son of Boreas. And why yes ladies, I, Jack son of Boreas, am indeed available." He flirted with the girls

Some oohed and other awed while the sensibly ones rolled their eyes at that Jack character.

Danny scoffed at the playboy. So annoying.

The Jack guy smirked at Danny and strutted over like a peacock. "Why Danny, my friend, would you like to see who is the better archer? We can even do no powers if you feel like it."

"Hmm!" Chiron cleared his voice. "Let us continue on with our lesson. Line up in front of a target, everyone. Now your stance should be perpendicular to the target.

Campers of the Hermes Cabin rushed to their targets, leaving Danny in front of the one he was already at. He brought his bow back up and listened to Chiron, hoping to actually be able to show that Jack guy up. Or loose the arrow properly, which ever came first.

"Your feet should be a shoulder-width apart and parallel. Nock your arrows and set." His rich voice called out.

Knock? Danny scratched his head and looked at the others. They all seemed to have it down pat, clipping the arrow on and handling the bow with matured ease. Danny breathed easy when he noticed those also struggling, however he grit his teeth as Jack handled the bow and arrow with grace. Not fair, man. Not fair at all, that annoying little wind guy.

Chiron continued to instruct the campers. "Lift and draw."

With that Danny awkwardly lifted the bow and drew the bow string back. Shifting his hand, he tried to match the other more experienced campers.

"Anchor. Aim. Release!" Arrows flew in a flurried rush. They whizzed towards the target, some hitting, others striking through, and those left (such as Danny's) missed the target completely and flew beyond). "Don't forget to follow through!" Chiron reminded them all.

Sighing, Danny looked dauntingly at where his arrow landed. A camper beside him shrugged. "Well at least you have power behind your draw."

"Thank you, I'm glad to have noticed that." Danny deadpanned.

"Kern can't even hit the target." Shouted Jack.

Quite a few campers started laughing at his statement. Danny angrily blushed and narrowed his darkening greener eyes at the son of Boreas. Nostrils flaring, Danny did all he could to bite back a remark.

Time went on and so did the activities. After the embarrassment in Archery, Danny walked a little behind the group, as they moved to sword practice in the Arena. The last group, which included Percy, had left for Archery so that Hermes cabin could move into the practice field. Danny surveyed the others and his mouth formed an 'o' shape. He didn't have a sword. Everyone else did. Raising his hand, he saw that the brutish girl with crazy muscles (oddly reminiscent of Tetslaff). Yeah, sword fighting.

"No need to raise your hand." She spat a spit wad on the ground. "What you want, punk?"

"I'm assuming since everyone else has a sword, I'm supposed to as well." Danny said.

Clarisse scoffed. "What idiot didn't get you a sword?"

"Well that would have to probably be the one who showed me around camp." Chimed in Danny.

"Grah, Crys, go help the idiot over here to find a sword." Clarisse barked.

She continued to school them into shape with various warm up exercises while Danny and Crys went to towards the camp buildings to collect a sword for him. Next to the Athena Cabin, a shack stood. Within that same shack held all the armory and weapons made by the Hephaestus Cabin. Crys opened the door and beamed at him.

Danny peered at her while she went through sword and saber, looking for one. Somewhere in the mess, she peeked up with one weapon. It appeared normal, metallic and the like, however Danny didn't really feel like touching it. Something felt … wrong about holding it, despite her insistence.

Crys giggled at him, "It's only a sword, silly, nothing to be afraid of."

He held the sword awkwardly. His hand twitched all the while he held it until he handed it back to her quickly. "Yeah, no, this isn't my sword."

"It's not meant to be your sword." She rolled her eyes all the while smiling at the situation, "It's just supposed to be a weapon that you use, not yours to keep at this moment."

"You a Hephaestus kid?" Danny inquired, looking at the unnaturally cheery girl.

She shook her head. "No, I'm the daughter of Enyo, goddess of war. Enyo and Ares get off rather well, considering they're the Greek gods of war and the Greek version of Irish twins. So I get really excited about weapons and war games. Don't mind that, let's just get you a sword."

Well, that made sense why she was smiling in the midst of deadly things. He scratched the back of his neck at her beaming behavior around the tools of warfare, letting her continue on her merry way. Wait, would he be any good with a sword?

After half an hour, they found a sword that didn't make Danny feel funky and they marched back on to the Arena with Crys whistling cheerily all the way there. It made no sense why someone could be that excited about war. He shrugged as they walked through the grass, getting closer to the shouting. Somethings were better left alone. Like Sam in the morning. His mom without her coffee. Tucker ranting about how amazing meat and technology was.

A pang pressed against his heart. He felt homesick. Nothing he could do to go back home at this point, despite how much it hurt not to be there.

Was Amity safe?

How were Tucker and Sam?

Had the Fentons been able to keep up with the ghosts?

Was Mom okay?

That last one pierced him through the heart. Clenching his fists, he could feel the skin become oily and clammy. His chest felt heavy. His fault. All of this was his fault or his dad's.

Danny really hated his father. Even if it had meant never being born, he wished that his dad had never been near his mom. She was too amazing for someone to throw her into this life where she would have had to worry daily and hourly about her kid's life. It just wasn't fair.

He blinked as a hand waved in front of his face.

"Hullo?" The wavy haired girl puzzled at him. "You stopped for some reason. That's not a good thing, we need to get to the Arena. The hour is almost over and I really want to hit something with my blade."

"Oh, right, let's go." Danny agreed partly.

She skipped ahead while he trudged behind, either way, they made it to the Arena before it ended. Clarisse set Crys with some Hermes kid while she trained Danny herself. By the time he got his sword up to begin, she had already crossed blades with him, shoving him backwards.

Dodge. Strike. Parry. Slash!

She pressed harder every time he got close to getting a move right. He kept trying to keep his feet shoulder-length apart but with her constant beat down, it seemed near impossible to stay upright on his feet. She shoved against his sword, he stumbled back again. Trying to restrain from becoming ghostly, Danny trampled and teetered on the edge until he fell onto his backside with her sword tip pressed against his neck. His eye twitched.

"Not cool, dude." He grunted out as she humiliated him by resting her foot on his chest.

Clarisse yawned. "You're not even good. Definitely not one of my siblings, thank the gods. We don't need Jackson-look-a-like in our mighty midst."

"Yeah, I'm not one to hang around muscle heads either." She grinded her foot into his chest.

Danny winced. "Now I'm stuck between the ground and hard place. Yeah, me."

"Ah, shut up, I can't stand to hear wimps complain." Clarisse took her foot off of him and he got up quickly.

Now if he could use his powers, she would have been flat on the ground in two seconds flat. But, his ghostly ability wasn't part of this spectrum of the world. Danny chewed the inside of his cheek, nostrils flaring. Anyone else reminded of Dash?

Unable to stop himself quick enough (blame the ADHD), Danny inquired. "You related to a Dash Baxter?"

She flipped her hair and narrowed her dark eyes at him. "Asking about my other family?"

"Well why not, I mean does the apple fall far from tree, or is it just coincidence you two seem to be related?"

A fire lit in her eyes and growled, slashing her sword upon him, but without the weapons weighing him down, he was too quick. Tumbling out of the way, Danny dashed here and kept her going in a dizzying circle.

"Missed me. Missed me. Now you gotta ki-Oof!" Danny fell flat on his front as a foot tripped him.

Clarisse smirked at the boy. "Never try to trick a daughter of Ares in a spar or battle."

Scowling at her, he got up off the ground. Danny hobbled to one side of the field and sat there watching the rest of everything take place. It was a nice patch of ground in an unfortunate place.

Danny sat there and sighed, thinking.

When was he going to get home?

His head hurt too much to think, but being wounded (mostly his pride) he couldn't do much other than think. Finally, to his relief, the hour was over and it was time to change classes. He got up and moved on with the group.

"Hey, uh, Danny was it?"

Crys, the girl from earlier, skipped until she walked alongside him. Her soft caramel hair draping gently on her shoulders. Danny thought it very odd that she would be the daughter of a war goddess. No, Crys was way too sweet for that.

"You should probably get to the Big House with a cut like that. Flying is not gonna help it, that's for sure."

"Oh, right, thanks."

"You're welcome."

Danny started his wandering towards the Big House and Crys joined him. She chatted on and on about this or that, always busy about something. Together, they laughed about other stories that had happened at camp. And in that moment, things seemed simple, pleasant even. Danny's heart stirred and his blood rushed at the thought of his mother. No matter what, she'd enjoy this too. The sooner he could get out of here, the better.

* * *

 **Surprise! Early chapter! So in case you haven't noticed, I have a time limit for myself, every thirteen days I update this fanfic (which is becoming my favorite and top priority to write).**

 **Thank you, thank you, thank you, to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. I know compared to some this isn't a big thing, but it's a huge milestone for myself. Trying not to compare this story to the success of others is hard, but I try to remember that my story is unique. This story is one of a kind so how can I compare to others. I can learn from others, but at the end of the day, I can't actually compare how well my fanfic is doing. So thank you so much for all your support, it means more than you realize.**

 **A: Not telling you what happens.**

 **Q: What's your Pokemon GO team?**

 **R &R guys! See you next time!**


	9. Chapter 9

**-Chapter Nine-**

 **Don't Eat the Cheese**

Without further ado, Danny and Crys made it to the Big House and into the infirmary. The young girl, roughly twelve years old, helped him onto a bed and called for the medic on duty. Danny rolled his intense eyes. He really didn't need to do this; he would heal faster than the average human (or demigod in this case) so going here was pointless.

"Oh sit still." Crys ordered.

Danny stopped fidgeting and looked up at her. Peering closer at the dark girl, he hesitantly asked. "So tell me, how many are there other than the twelve Olympians?"

"Too many to count." She shrugged. "Of course you could always get into the whole Greek-Roman debate, which is not pretty by the way. But I would suggest asking Clara, Iris' daughter or Annabeth, daughter of Athena."

"Who's Clary?"

Crys grinned, bouncing on her heels. "Clara – or Clary for short – was the redhead who yelled at you at practice. She just likes to seem tough." The young camper giggled. "It's actually kinda funny."

In stepped an Apollo kid, a preteen by the looks of things. He had bright blond hair and dazzling blue eyes but a most serious frown on his face. Stopping in front of the bed, he watched Danny and Danny mirrored him, taking in every move. For some reason, Danny felt himself panic. A healer might be able to discover his secret. He could not allow that to happen no matter what. No, nope. Not today, healer, not today! He twitched and the healer guy/Apollo kid narrowed his eyes at him.

"I'm Will Solace, son of Apollo." He introduced himself. "Tell me, where do you feel the most pain?"

"I don't, Crys brought me here simple because I got a bruise. She's overreacting." Danny pulled his camp shirt down to show him the bruise that was purple and yellow by now. Stupid Clarisse banging her stupid metal boot on his chest. That had really hurt.

Will looked it over. His trained eyes took in every detail of the bruise, and he pressed lightly against it. "Does this hurt?"

"It's called a bruise for a reason." Danny winced.

Sure it didn't hurt as bad as something he had received over the years, however, it had been extremely black and blue and hurt his breathing. Thank you, healing factor. Except for those awkward moments when he had to pretend to be fully human. Or in this case half human half godly. Yeah, that works out well.

"It seems to be healing well enough." Will announced. "I'll give you some ambrosia to speed up the process, however if your chest still hurts after today, come see me again. Your may have had your ribs bruised."

Straightening, Will walked over to the cabinet and took out a bottle of ambrosia. He handed it over to the skipping Crys who then gave it to Danny. Danny took a sip and yanked it away from his mouth. It tasted _exactly_ like his mom's cinnamon apple pie!

"What the heck?" Danny stared at it, his eyes wide. "What is this stuff?"

"Ambrosia… why?" Will tilted his head at him.

Danny peered at the healer. "Why does it taste like apple pie?"

"Because it tastes like your favorite food!" Chirped Crys, still bouncing on her feet.

Hesitantly, Danny drank a little more, feeling the weird warmth of gooey apple-cinnamon rolling down his throat. He stopped and set it beside him on the bed. Weird stuff. By the time he stopped tasting the weird thing, Danny had stood up and walked out the door with his possible…friend?

Actually, he wasn't sure what to think of Crys. She acted so random, it was hard to keep up with her every movement.

"Thanks for bringing him in, Crys. I'll hopefully not see either of you in here for a while." Will rearranged some things – at least Danny thought so since he didn't turn to look at the demigod doctor/nurse person. "Don't get into too much trouble."

Crys giggled. "Oh, you're so silly, Willy."

Flouncing out of the room, Crys skipped ahead of Danny while he awkwardly waved goodbye to the medic. Once out of there, he breathed. Huh, weird, didn't know he was holding in a breath. Good news, the Apollo kid didn't find out about his half-ghost self, and the bad news, Danny cringed at the thought of drinking ambrosia again. It tasted wrong to drink cinnamon apple pie. It was wrong! Crys teetered on her feet, beaming up at him.

"You're thinking heavy again."

"Thinking heavy?"

"Mhmm!" Crys nodded. "You need to relax. Not everything needs to get done now, y'know."

Danny narrowed his eyes at the bubbly girl. "You're positive you aren't Aphrodite's kid?"

She laughed. It wasn't a laugh like Sam's which was raw and undignified, or like his mom's which was soft and short. No her laughter sounded like faerie bells tinkling. Pfft. Tinkling.

"Daniel, Crystiana, there you are. I was curious as to why you two weren't at your lessons." Chiron clip-clopped into the hallway where they stood.

His expression hardened and his mind ran through a billion different reasons. Biting his tongue, Danny observed the ancient mentor of the greats and the semi-goods and of the absolutely terrible. C'mon, who in their right mind would teach Hercules? That idiotic demigod 'hero'. Chiron raised an eyebrow at Danny.

"Is there something you'd like to say, Daniel?"

"Your name is Crystiana?" He turned to watch Crys.

Crys pouted. "Well excuse me for hating my full name. It's not as is Crystiana is gonna get me places. Crys works so much better because it's ambiguous and gender neutral. If I ever go out on a quest I have the name to be a guy or girl. Plus Crys is way more threatening than Crystiana. Yeuch! I sound like a Aphrodite princess. Puh leaze! I'm the daughter of a war goddess. I like being threatening."

"You're about as threatening as a pet hamster."

"Why you!"

Chiron cleared his throat. "There was something else you wanted to ask me?"

"I need to go home – to Amity Park immediately." Danny straightened up, rolling his shoulders back and meeting the tall centaur's gaze. "I'm needed there so I can't stay here where I'm cannon fodder. It's pointless here."

Closing his old eyes, Chiron frowned and Danny's mouth parted slightly. He had always known that Chiron was super old, but watching him now, his face was ancient. Suddenly withered and lined and _so very old_. When he opened his eyes, Danny turned away slightly, nothing compared to seeing those. "Follow me."

The two campers and mismatched-possible friends followed Chiron down the hallway. From there they turned into the living room where Mr. D reclined eating cheese and crackers and sipping on diet coke. Exactly at the moment they entered, he snarled and grumbled quietly in enough it sounded like gibberish. Yep, real inspiring right there. Thanks Mr. D. While he lay on the couch munching, the platter and drink sat on the coffee table in the middle of the room on top of the intricate carpet. Other chairs filtered through out the room and the walls had bead board and warm yellow walls with a white ceiling and a fan. It almost seemed cozy if not for the camp director's unfavorable disposition.

Danny scratched the back of his head and looked at Chiron, now that he had transformed into his wheel-chaired persona. "So why'd you ask us to follow you into here?"

"Crys, if you could leave please?"

She whined, pouting. "Why? He's my friend, I wanna know what happens to him." At his parental glare, she faltered. "Fine…"

Stomping out of the room, the daughter of Enyo could no longer be heard after a few minutes went by.

"Daniel-"

"Danny, seriously, call me Danny." He shuddered at the idea of being called Daniel, reminded him of a creep.

"Danny, we can't send you home."

Danny flipped. His fists clenched and his teeth grit. Those eyes of his flickered static green and darkened. "Why the flip not? I'm sure others have gone, so why can't I? And no, don't tell me because I've barely spent a day here that I can't leave. That is not true. I refuse to believe that's why. My family needs me!"

"You have not yet been claimed."

He chuckled. "Claimed?" He shook his head. "I have to be claimed like some animal by my birth father in order to leave?"

"Oh shut the Hades' up, Darcy Keleher." Mr. D butt in. "You're giving me a headache."

"At least you're not Lightning Man, Mr. D. He had a pretty big headache." Danny sniped.

Chiron huffed. "Have some cheese and crackers, Danny, and we'll talk about this calmly."

Danny snorted. Pacing back and forth, he wrung his hands out and felt his chest clench up with pent-up tension. "You want calm? Well get out of this camp, then you might find calm. In fact, that's what I want. I want OUT! I need to go home; I need to find my mom. And you're not standing in my way!"

Everything stood still. Danny crossed his arms against his chest and glared daggers at Chiron, who seemed older than Time at this point and of course Mr. D. noisily chewed on cheese and crackers. It wasn't as if he didn't want to learn how to fight with weapons or learn who his father was. It wasn't as if he didn't want to learn about his family heritage and meet his potential cousins and siblings. But damn it all if he couldn't save his mother or see his friends and Amity again. That second felt like eternity, with a million and one angry, brutal thoughts coursing through the waves of emotion in his brain.

Few things stood in his way, but he knew that Chiron and Mr. D were two of them. Without them in the way, he'd be off his merry way to find his mother and keep the peace in Amity. It just wasn't fair that they wouldn't let him go. His heart grew colder and the tension built thickly in his chest.

"I'm so sorry, Danny. We -"

"Mr. D?" Ugh, not him again. Danny didn't even turn to see that annoying yet familiar voice. "Oh, is this a bad time?"

Danny snarked. "You may have wanted to check your watch. Good time comes in an hour."

"You're judging me." Percy narrowed his eyes at Danny.

Danny turned to face him, his eyes flaring. "It's what I do – it's a hobby of mine."

"Take up a new one, knitting, crocheting." Percy shrugged. Turning his attention to Chiron, he started to restate why he came there and all that nonsense.

In the midst of all that, Danny left. Shrouded in his inner darkness (ooh, so scary), he vanished out of the house and into the fields where he trudged down to the beach. Past the cabins and the climbing wall that spewed out lava. He proceeded beyond the pavilion, where other campers sat to slack off from duties or other such things. Treading down the pathway to the beach, he became rather nostalgic and frowned. Once more he sat in the shade and ignored all calls to lunch or where he was supposed to be with his group. The ocean looked calming, serene and _oh, how his mother would have loved it._

 _"Mom! Mom!" He jumped up and down as they walked down the sidewalk_

 _She laughed and bent down to meet his eyes. "What is it?"_

 _Despite the rushing cars and after school traffic noises, she heard him clearly. Her gray-blue eyes twinkled taking in his cherubic face. Finally, after what felt like hours waiting for his mom to get out work, they were walking home to their tiny apartment in the small town of Amity Park. Her smiling face tilted towards him despite how exhausted she seemed._

 _"Look what we painted in class today." Danny gave her his still-wet picture with a proud, beaming grin resting lightly on his face. "I 'member how you used to say you loved the ocean so my teacher helped me find a picture so I could copy it for you!"_

 _After a few moments of quiet, he frowned. Where were her eyes wet? Did the ocean not make her happy anymore? Did Danny do something bad? "Momma? Did I make you sad?"_

 _"Oh Danny!" She embraced him in a hug and squeezed him against her with her one free arm. Pecking the side of his forehead, she leaned away from the hug and smiled. "I absolutely love this! Once we get home, I'm putting it right up on the fridge! After all my big boy is the best painter in the whole wide world!"_

 _Danny gaped at his mother before leaping into her arms with a smile._

To this day, that painting still rest on top of the fridge. She never took it down, and hopefully, she never would. Danny opened his startling blue eyes and sighed at the setting sun.

Light snores came from beside him and there lay the most annoying pest to exist. Percy Jackson. Actually, Danny bit his lip and turned his head back to the Atlantic, not wasting his time on the liar. He had seen him in Amity, he knew it.

And in only fifteen days he'd be turning, just that fifteen. The first birthday without his mom.

"Miss you, Mom." He whispered letting the wind carry his words to where ever she was. "I'll find you and I'll tell you everything. I swear it."

* * *

 **I don't have much to say, but I wanna say thanks again. It's been busy for me with college prep and dealing with my sib's wedding and stress and anxiety. Just noticing all you reviewers (good, bad, ugly whateves), all you followers, and all of you who has favorited this story, you are amazing and I hope that you're all inspired to be amazing people and stay true to who you are.**

 **A: I'd probably be Team Instinct.**

 **Q: If you absolutely had to choose - DC or Marvel?**

 **Thank you, amazing people! R &R**

 **Signing off, Sora**


	10. Chapter 10

**-Chapter 10-**  
 **Thanks For the Memories**

It had been eight months since he had arrived at Camp Halfblood, and in those eight months, he had discovered more about himself than he had ever figured. Not only that but it had been eleven months since he had left Amity Park and those three months…Danny bit his lower lip, not even wincing as something dripped onto his jutting chin. He could never get those three months back. Tightening his handle of the bow, Danny aimed true to the target and loosed. He ran a ran through his unruly, longer hair and grit his teeth. The arrow landed outside of the target, not even on the target or through, but out on the grass away from it. "Remember to follow up." The short counselor of Apollo reminded.  
He shot him a withered look. "You think I don't know that?" Over the past few months, he had asked for guidance with his archery. Overtime he had conquered the sword and could wield it effectively but archery eluded him annoyingly. One thing that Danny absolutely despised was the inability to do it if he believed he could. Sam always did say he was too stubborn for his own good. Sam…  
His heart ached and the inside of his chest felt hollow at the thought of his friends from Amity Park – his family. He needed them and they needed him. Having no idea if the ghosts had overrun their hometown killed him a little each day since he could have protected them if he wasn't here.  
Danny's grip splintered his bow that he kept taut in his hands. Releasing the arrow once more, it flew and seared clean through the target and landed shortly past it. Gently, he relaxed his hand and looked at the Apollo counselor who attempted to help him out. The arrow tipped over and landed flat on the ground, pointed directly at him. But hey, now he was hitting the target. Today was the fifteenth of March, almost a year since he had left and all was quiet. Too quiet for his tastes. He had tried going back to Amity Park, however Chiron quickly dissuaded that idea which left him burning in anger. Oh, Danny's nostrils flared and his eyes blackened. "Easy there, Kern." Michael Yew warned, "No need to break another bow."  
"I still don't see why I have to learn all this stuff. I can fight easily with my hands." Danny argued.  
He had grown during his stay. From his pathetic height of five foot five, he had reached five foot eight and was still growing. All this training and all his own personal training that no one knew about had given him a fitter figure, however that scowl on his face seemed to become a permanent feature. His once bright eyes had darkened into a royal blue, though they never ceased in their intensity. As for his bright orange camp shirt, it constantly was getting ripped due to his reckless fighting tactics. The fifteen-year-old half-blood half-ghost looked like a toned emo kid, something Crys never let him live down.  
Michael sighed. "Go and take a break, comeback when you're up to actually firing an arrow."  
"Yeah, yeah." Danny waved him off. Muttering something incomprehensible, he threw his hands into his leather jacket pockets and wandered off. Despite almost being in Camp for a year now, Danny still kept getting looks from people. He wished to could just fade into the background and disappear. Oddly, he had hoped for Jackson to show up, missing the annoying guy who knew him but claimed he didn't. Ugh. People. He needed at least two cups of caffeinated black coffee before he could attempt to understand his cabin mates. "Danny!" Crys – the year round camper – chimed in, skipping to his side. "So how are you?"  
He scoffed. "Fantastic. How about yourself?"  
"I'm all right." She shrugged, pulling her jacket closer around her. "I'm more excited for summer right now. Winter's too draining and the fighting is sluggish."  
Danny chuckled at the young girl. Here a young girl was more concerned about beating the crap out of someone than who the latest popstar was. Oh, it was certainly refreshing to be around her. Her pouting face made him guffaw even harder while she crossed her arms and turned away from him. "You've got your pegasi riding class, go to it."  
Crys rolled her eyes. "It's your class too, Mr. Emo."  
He huffed. "Unlike most people I have a natural affinity with horses and I don't need to actually take lessons riding them, I can ride a flying horse fluidly. So go, you'll be late."  
"Fine, fine. But next time, you're coming." She jutted her pointer finger at his chest. He shrugged.  
The short thirteen-year-old skipped off to the lessons leaving her friend alone – just the way he liked it these days. Rolling his shoulders, he stepped carefully towards the forest, wandering. Danny watched the sunbeams hit the light misting of snow at such an angle that they glittered like diamonds in the grass. Lightly, he pressed his foot down on the ground, and headed towards the tree line where solitude awaited. Once he reached the forest, Danny ventured through, watching the sun and the trees and the snow all intermix into an intricate arrangement. He spotted the river and a slight smile warmed his facial features despite the cold weather. He could see his breath ghost and he chuckled absently, after all there were no ghosts here within Camp Halfblood. Stepping towards the river in the playing field, Danny sat down on the cold ground next to it. What now? He swallowed and looked at his reflection in the stream. Stingy long hair that hung around his face, his eyes were much darker, his skin tanner; how would they recognize him if they ever saw him again. Wistfully, he pulled out his old phone, that he apparently couldn't use for safety reasons (stupid monster signals), and flipped it open. How it stayed charged despite no charger, he didn't know but what he did know was that it was a gift. Closing his eyes, he inhaled and opening them, he exhaled. Right there was a picture of his mom, Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and himself all happy and excited. Recalling those memories, Danny shook his head with the absent smile still there. "If they could see me now." He chuckled, "I doubt they would know who I was. I've changed so much."  
His voice cracked. Clearing his throat, he took out his dagger from its sheath that dangled on his jeans. A gift from Chiron for some reason, but a weapon was a weapon and he'd rather have one than none, especially in this world. Using his dagger to create a rainbow, Danny fished out a coin from his pocked and tossed the golden drachma through it. "Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Sam Manson." The image wavered and he felt his chest tighten as his best friend, the beautiful goth, flipped through the pages in the old bookshop down Amity's least reputable places. Good old Sam. He smiled at the image of her. Clearing his throat, he started to say something then he couldn't. But he didn't have to, the clearing of the throat got her attention. She stumbled backwards, eyes wide, and stuttered. "D-Danny? What the heck?"  
"Don't touch it!" He shouted as she reached out to touch his face. "You turn full ghost or something? How did you do this?"  
He ran his fingers through his thick, black hair. "It's complicated. Regardless, how have things been in Amity?"  
"Not so great." She groaned. His heart drooped at the sound of her defeated voice. "We've been run over twice, the Fentons can't fix this, people have almost died way more than they should have, and we can't survive much longer. Where are you, Danny? When can you come home?"  
He swallowed thickly, suddenly parched. "Sam," his voice cracked, "I don't know if I can come home. I – it's my dad's family. I'm with them and – it's complicated Sam."  
"What happened." She watched carefully.  
"Greeks pantheon is real. I'm not just a halfa, Sam, I'm half-god too. Demigod." He shuddered despite the fact he couldn't get cold easily. "Mom –" He closed his eyes. "Mom and I had an accident, and I was the only who made it to my dad's family camp."  
He spilt the whole story of how he was taken in by Cabin Eleven and all the adventures that had come to pass while he was there. His bead necklace, his training, and the wildest secret of all.  
"Let me get this straight," Sam shook her head, "You're a demigod and you have no idea who your dad or even what happened to you and your mom."  
"Yeah," Danny sighed. "That's crazy!"  
Danny chuckled awkwardly, "Yeah, and I'm living it." At her quieted expression, he bit his lower lip and ran his fingers through his hair again. "Mom, left me way too many secrets to figure out."  
Her image rippled and he froze as explosions resounded on the other side. Sam wavered, regaining her balance as things shook around her. Book toppled over and screams screeched. "Sam? Sam!"  
The connection cut off there and Danny's heart raced a mile a minute. His intense eyes narrowed and he abruptly stood up and took off as fast as he could. Soon enough the Big House came into view and he tore through the porch and through the front door till he found Chiron and Mr. D reclining in the Living room aka the Meeting room. Danny spat. "I need to go home to Amity Park now!"  
"Chill, Daryl Krumb, no need to shout." Mr. D turned his diet coke into red wine and went to take a sip. "You demigods are all the same."  
"Oh shut up, Mr. D. Besides you're restricted remember?" He glowered at the Camp Director.  
Mr. D scowled right back at Danny and turned it back into diet coke. Meanwhile, Chiron folded his arms across his human chest. "You'll need a quest to go."  
"Great," Danny flatly stated. "I'll go see a dead woman for a prophecy for a quest. I see dead people so I can fight dead people."  
Chiron observed Danny before nodding, mostly to himself, and told him. "Go and ask the Oracle." Swiftly, Danny obeyed. He went up the stairs and elevated to attic where the mummy sat surrounded by questing objects. Creepy and bothersome, Danny eyed the ancient Oracle, seeing it for the first time. Now he had battled an old ghost who controlled meat, was sought after by this twenties ghost big-game hunter, and had been pushed into the fifties by a ghost who haunted a locker and hated bullies. He had seen seriously whacked up stuff before. Yet, a mummy who gave prophecies gave him creepy-crawlies up his spine. "What is my destiny?" Danny swallowed his fear and questioned the dead.  
The corpse creaked to life and an otherworldly voice spoke. "Darkness shall envelope the world Fate of all resting on a girl Her choice will push the dark son to the test To usurp the king and take his place or fall and be put to eternal rest."  
Shuddering, it fell down to what it had been before. Danny watched it carefully for a moment before heading down to go see Chiron and Mr. D. His ADHD mind rattled and caught onto the prophecy, repeating it over and over again, trying to understand it. Once he was back in the living room, Chiron, as a centaur, clip-clopped over to him. "What did she say?"  
Danny repeated the prophecy quietly, still not quite believing it himself. A prophecy about him. Well, weirder things have happened. His mind raced at the thought, darkness covering the world. But where would it start, in Amity Park, in New York? Where? Who the heck was the dark son? Did it mean a literal dark guy who was the son of someone important or did it reflect his nature or his heritage? Questions ran through his head as he tried desperately to interpret the prophecy. For a moment, Chiron said nothing and scratched his beard in thought. "I see." He finally uttered. "Who will you be taking on this journey with you?"  
Danny blinked. Right, hadn't thought of that. He scratched his head and sighed. "I don't know."  
"Would you like a suggestion?" Chiron watched him through careful aged eyes. "Why not," He shrugged. "I'll go a suggestion or two."  
Chiron nodded. "Claire, daughter of Iris and a child of Apollo."  
Snickering, the unclaimed camper folded his arms across his chest and frowned. As Chiron surveyed the boy that laughed at his suggestion, Danny shook his head and said, "Apollo kids hate me, plus Clary is annoying." He frowned. Danny did not care for the centaur's opinion; he still was angry at him for not letting him go all those months ago. In fact, he bet that if Chiron had let him go then he would not have had to send an unclaimed camper out on a quest now. This was completely unusual and, last he checked, the first time an unclaimed camper received a prophecy. Even Percy had been claimed before he went on his first quest to retrieve the Lightning Bolt of Zeus and stop a world war. But that was in the past and all this was now. He may be mad at the trainer of demigod heroes, but that didn't mean he didn't have good things to say – unfortunately. "I'll take Clary and -"  
"I'm coming." They whirled around and saw Jack standing there with a new camper behind him. The platinum blond smirked at Danny, his brown eyes alight with mirth. Next to him, the young boy, maybe eight years old, tugged on his blue sleeves and whispered something. Jack bent down, "Pas besoin d'avoir peur, petit. Il est une sorte centaure."  
Danny blinked. What just happened. "You're a Frenchie?"  
"Is that a problem." Jack spat. "I'm bilingual, get over yourself."  
Danny growled back at him. "No need to get angry, moron!"  
The little brunet boy stared with wide eyes than tugged again on his sleeve. This time he spoke loud enough for Danny and the others to hear him. "Je n'aime pas le garcon en colére, monsieur. Il ne semble pas trés agréable."  
Danny again was amazed as Jack used a soft voice to speak to the kid. "Les Américains ne sont pas agréable en général.  
"So, emo," Jack picked up the kid in his arms, "I'm coming on this quest."  
He wanted to smash his face into a wall, but couldn't at this point in time. So with a parental look from Chiron, Danny nodded his head. "Fine, Jack, you can come on the quest."

* * *

 **Well here's something to spice things up! I've been rereading Percy Jackson as we're getting closer and closer to the Battle with Kronos and the giants. Just let y'all know this is an AU so soon enough we will be diverting from canon drastically. Be prepared readers. Be prepared!**

 **A: Marvel FTW Though I do like Batman**

 **Q: What do you guys like/dislike about the OCs in this story?**

 **Thank you all for all your support for this fanfiction! See you next chapter! R &R**


	11. Chapter 11

**-Chapter 11-**

 **Hit the Road, Jack**

By the time the sun rose above the trees, the three were packed and ready to go. Wide eyed and bushy-tailed Crys stood with them while they waited for Argus, to drive them to their first step in the quest, and Chiron, to say goodbye to them. The sun lovingly rising above the the horizon and betraying its true nature to the entire world. The evident protagonist of the story hardly kept his grumbling from being heard. His overly 'friendly' fellow quester Jack twitched, mumbling something in French that suspiciously sounded something like, 'Mon Dieu'.

"Swear in French much?" Danny refrained from growling out. His hair wildly hung all about him and he had huge bags under his eyes. Late night training had caused him to lack sleep, instead he stood there that morning frazzled.

"Shut up, Kern." Jack snapped. "Gah! I need coffee."

Clary glared at him. "You're an addict."

"I need what I need." He shrugged.

Not really listening (or caring), Danny felt his muscles ache as he shifted from side to side. With his ADHD acting up, he constantly moved on the bottom of his heels and playing his fingers. A song popped into his head that he felt the strange urge to smile at, and he looked at Jack as he hummed a couple bars. Jack bared his teeth and their only female companion shot him a withered look.

"Two quests at the same time. How strange." Crys murmured, crouching down to view the snow patterns.

She spoke of the Hunters and Campers joint quest to save Annabeth and Artemis from whomever held the captive. Or at least that was the most current and popular version of the story. Most of the quest's details were kept under wraps. Danny hadn't exactly felt the urge to pry into the details. It didn't matter to him nor should it have. Jackson's business was his own and if he felt the indescribable urge to end up dying then he fine, he should have totally taken that quest and other suicidal quests.

Daughter of Iris, Clary raised a red eyebrow. "Are you even supposed to be here?"

Mornings were kind to no person.

"Not exactly," She hummed. "But I'm here for Danny."

Snow crunched and they noticed Argus – the many eyed watch guard – walking towards them. Chiron trotted beside Argus that cold early March morning. Once the two made it to where the four were, Chiron stopped while Argus proceeded to the vehicle just out of sight that the four of them would be taking into New York City.

"Best of luck to all of you." Chiron nodded.

Danny stilled. "We won't need luck."

Nudging him, Clary sent Chiron a tired smile. "Thank you, we'll be on our guard."

"Normally we don't have two quests ongoing at the same time. So be especially on your guard." Chiron heeded them.

Jack sobered and nodded. "Merci, Chiron. We'll be careful."

As Chiron dismissed them for their quest, Crys raced up to Danny and tackled him. Despite the strength he had gained during his year there, he stumbled backwards as the sudden weight tumbled on top of him. How her arms wrapped around his waist felt strange, Danny blinked unused to the affection and physical touch. Awkwardly, he patted her back with both hands and once he did that, she let him go and jumped back with a sad smile.

Danny watched the daughter of Enyo clutch her hands behind her back. His heart drooped. Something about this, something didn't add up.

"Be safe, don't get into too much trouble, Danny." Crys shrugged her shoulders with a smile and closed eyes. When her shoulders drooped, her eyes opened, "Keep going homebound, don't get let that ADHD distract you."

He chuckled roughly, unfamiliar with its sound. "Heh, yeah, home."

His heart clenched and all those stolen memories presented their loss to the forefront of his mind. As his heart had, so did both fists, clenching till one could see white. Words weren't very well used, Danny knew he had no words to describe the world of pain and sorrow that fought to break through as tears and mourning, but he kept a straight face. Not a crack on his older face.

"Well, you better get on your way, children," Chiron began. "Your quest has long since been over due to begin."

Danny nodded. Eagerly wishing for a thermos filled with coffee or something, he marched with the others towards the vehicle that Argus would use. Onward to New York, only this time, Danny felt prepared. His knife at his side and years' worth of skills, this time he would make it all the way and remember it.

Getting in the car, sitting in the back with Clary while Jack had the front next to Argus. Danny leaned to look out the window, wearily watching the scenery pass by. Without the bitter liquid – which should be of the gods – nor the wonderful reassurance that everything was gonna be okay, he allowed the questions to flood his brain. Seriously, mornings were not Danny's thing. They shouldn't even be a thing. By and by, Argus dropped them off in New York and Danny still restlessly wishing for some coffee. Seriously, what did it take to get coffee around these parts?

So, they ended up in New York City toddling onward like some sad looking penguins. Very strange looking penguins. Or at least, that's what Danny felt; knowing the truth of who he was, who they were, suddenly he felt like an animal in a zoo – specifically a penguin. Ending up right next to a bus stop and utterly surrounded by thousands of people and towering buildings, the trio stood there. Thousands of noises fluttered in and out, an odd orchestra of insanity almost matching their lives as half-bloods.

Still stuck in his thoughts, Danny stood there while Jack tapped his foot impatiently and Clary muttered something intelligible under her breath.

"Well, Corny," Jack raised an eyebrow, "You gonna lead this foolish thing?"

"Why in such a hurry, windbag?" Danny grumbled.

Jack groaned. "This is exactly why I call you corny. Your jokes are lame, dude."

"Just wave the white flag, Frenc –"

"And now Danny will direct us in the direction we need to go, correct, Danny?"

He nodded as Clary took charge - …sort of. Obviously she didn't actually take charge as he still lead the quest but at least someone was pointing the quest in the right direction. Anywho…

"We're gonna need a map, or is your sense of direction good enough, Breeze-y?"

"It's – "

"Great, and now we need to head north, North-West." Danny continued on, pressing forward on the crowded streets of New York City.

When was it ever not crowded to walk on those streets? He shrugged away the thought and continued to plan out his plan to the others. "We'll hit Philly first. From there we go to Columbus and then we need to cross into Illinois and we're northbound. Clary gets first pick on monsters and we'll only be stopping as short as possible. Any questions?"

Jack rushed in front of him and halted them in their walking. "Seriously, what's got you all fired up, Kern?"

"I'm going home, Jacques." Danny stared him down, a growl forming in the back of his throat. "My family is in danger and no one is going to stop me."

Danny kept walking and didn't look back.

 **Hey guys, I'm back! And here is the first installment of the three chapters I promised. Thank you for your concerns. Things are getting better slowly. My niece is better and my dad is slowly getting there. With my family, we unfortunately have the worst luck in the world, something happens right after and that's why I hadn't written anything till now. I'm getting there and hopefully the quality of the chapters will have improved.**

 **Definitely still in love with this story, definitely still planning on keeping it around, but remember this is an AU so most characters will be OOC. So if you complain someone isn't in character. Look at the end of chapter 12. Seriously this is an AU.**

 **A: Can't exactly answer this question myself because hey I'm writing it. So still waiting on this response from all y'all 'cause I know you read this**

 **Q: Who would you rather see in concert if you could pick one: Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco?**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

 **Snow + Mornings = Danger?**

For the umpteenth time that week, Clary complained about the cold, Jack kept grumbling, and Danny stayed quiet about it all. Akron, Ohio – where they somehow ended up – held some of the best donuts captive and they were out of money after spending it all on transportation. On a Tuesday morning, six days since they departed from camp, Jack whistled some cheery tune early in the morning while both the Daughter of Ares and the unspoken-for glared at him and threatened absolute pain.

Danny rolled his shoulders, and cringed at the pain he felt. An Unkindly One just had to be right in the middle of Hillbilly territory with a delightful Snake Lady right on their tail. Inwardly he chuckled at his joke, on the outside he bundled up his jacket and wrapped his sleeping bag and managed to latch it onto his backpack.

"So…" Clary began, brushing her thick red hair into a wild ponytail. "What's the plan to do, el Capitan?"

Grunting, Danny shook the snow off of the tan pack. "We're gonna dumpster dive for food because we're out of money and then keep heading onward. However, we're not stopping that often, Claire."

 _"Excusez-moi_?" Jack raised an eyebrow. "She's a girl, she's got her stuff to do."

"Look, we don't have the time, Jack!" Danny bit back, swinging his bag onto his back.

Clary huffed and rubbed her shoulders. "Let's at least stop at a public restroom so I can get ready while you two dumpster dive."

"Meet at Circle K on the other side of town." With those words, Danny took off into the crazy world of Akron, Ohio.

From that Goodyear Park, where they had spent the night, Danny surged forward into the town and onto the streets. The sun was unusually bright that day, glittering on the show, violently reflecting off of it and ruining his vision. Without a doubt, today was not going to be his day.

He stumbled upon a restaurant and lazily walked up to it. Swaggering around the building, Danny spotted the security camera. Before anything else, he spied to find no one looking at the area. Easily, he slipped into his invisible form and intangibly searched for food in the dumpster. Half eaten chicken, a decent hamburger, and… was that donuts? He sniffed the air and smiled. Donuts…

Tucker would –

Shaking his head, he took the donuts and filled his backpack with food, slipping in and out of the secure zone with ethereal ease. Ah yes, the good parts about being half ghost.

Ending up with at least a day's worth of food till they make it to the next city seemed rather fine to Danny, besides they should make it soon. His expression darkened when he thought about everything happening in Amity Park. He growled audibly as he became visible, marching forward to the meeting spot. No way would they suffer any longer. Danny would make sure of it.

A gasp resounded to his left, so he turned that way and narrowed his eyes. "Clary, what are you doing here."

She stiffened before snapping at him. "How did you do that? What secrets are you hiding? Do you already know who your dad is?"

He scoffed. "My father isn't the reason for this. However, you are going to listen to me and you're not going to tell anyone about this, understand?"

"Why? What are you, Kern?"

"Someone not to be messed with." His eyes flickered green – or so he guessed judging by her gaping expression.

The wild redhead spat back. "Neither is a daughter of Messages and guess who's standing right in front of you. So tell me what you are or so help me, I will make your life miserable!"

"Why are you desperate for answers?"

His calm voice sounded foreign to his ears. It had been so long since he had been that calm. Since he had been a swirling storm with a calm face, normally he exploded. His volatile temper nearly reaching its summit and he never felt for icy. The cold air felt warmer than his insides. Stone face and ice veins. Reminded him of his ghostly form, that crackle of electricity and ice.

He sighed, tearing his gaze away from her short figure. "Look, I don't have to explain myself to you. You won't like it and neither do I," His voice cracked. "We need to get going, Jack might beat us to the rendezvous. We can't allow the French to beat us, they need to keep waving that white flag. C'mon it's practically their national symbol."

"Seriously?" Clary raised an eyebrow. "You're not getting away that easily. And stop picking on the French so much. Just because Jack speaks French doesn't mean you can pick on that every freaking time. Get over it, Kern."

He started walking. Onto the street, into the morning rush of people going after coffee and donuts and/or bagels. The familiarity of it all – running his fingers through his longer hair, Danny sighed.

A thought hit him.

 _"When did I become so emo and angsty?"_

Those missing months. His frown deepened, the odd familiarity of it all reminded him of those months. Nothing else mattered but his family and they were in danger.

"What would you do to save your loved ones, Claire?" Danny asked quietly as they navigated through the streets of Akron.

Clary stopped and dug her hands in her coat pockets. "I would kill to save them. I would destroy their torturers."

"That's the difference between you and me, Clary." He looked up to the sky and closed his eyes. "I would die for them. I would give my life to save them. And…" He released a breath he didn't realize he had been holding in. "I have died. Well technically I half died." Chuckling awkwardly, he again ran his fingers through his stingy hair. Man, he needed a shower. "It's complicated."

"What?" Clary blinked at him. Folding her arms across her chest, her brow furrowed. All of this still occurring as they began their journey to Circle K. "You're half dead? Okay, there is no way you're not explaining this to me."

Danny snorted. "There was an accident on a school fieldtrip and I partially died in the process. But seriously, you can't tell Jack any of this. If anyone really knew, there'd be trouble on both sides really."

"Like he'd believe me anyway."

Danny resigned himself to explaining what had occurred all those years ago and how he had become Danny Phantom. Clary hung to his every word despite how insane it sounded to both themselves and to anyone who was listening in. It almost was like he was telling a fictional story that was actually reality. Sometimes, the truth really was stranger than fiction.

They made it over to Circle K, yet no Jack was to be found. Danny narrowed his darker eyes. Where was that French speaking jerk face who jumped on his quest?

"Oh there he is!" Clary pointed at the dot in the distance.

He felt the color draining from his face. Oh crap.

Welp, it just had to be a sister of dear old Snake Head.

"Clary, on the count of three we need to run." Danny ordered, getting his knife out. "That is one of the sisters of Medusa. You know the whole eyes and stone thing." He turned to look at his companion only to not find her next to him on the sidewalk, instead she looked into some cars. "What are you doing? This isn't the time to go window shopping!"

"Getaway car, obviously." She rolled her eyes. Finally, she patted one and waved him over. "C'mon, do your ghost thingy and let's get out of here!"

"But-" He panicked. A growl erupted from his throat. "Fine, let's go!" He yelled at Jack, "C'mon fly already! Hurry!"

Jack jumped in the air kicked backwards, pushing against what seemed to a wall of air. Launching forward, he started waving his limbs.

"He's going too fast." Danny noticed. Swallowing, his eyes flickered green. "Get the car started, "I'm getting Jack."

"Jack!"

"Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!" Jack screeched through the air.

Danny yelled at him, ready to jump at a moment's notice. "Stop yourself, Jack!"

"I can't!" He howled back.

The Gorgon screamed vividly. Making headway, faster than before. Danny leapt into the air, allowing the coldness of death and electricity of ectoplasm overtake his DNA for a moment. Catching the son of Boreas in his arms, he dropped down to the ground and switched back immediately. Clary got the car open and the alarms shrilly alerted the entire parking lot.

Heart pounding, Danny intangibly leapt into the car with Jack and slipped into the front seat. Feeling around, he yanked out the alarm and started up the car, pounding his foot on the gas.

"Buckle up, Clary, Jack, It's gonna be a bumpy ride!" Danny revved the engine and shot out of the parking lot and onto the highway.

Clary gripped the handle and her seat until her knuckles turned white. "Do you even know how to drive?" She hollered at him.

"Nope," He grit his teeth, "but the sooner we get that monster behind us the better." He whooped wildly and the speedometer shot over eighty miles an hour, taking them right out Akron and hopefully soon out of Ohio.

Onto Amity Park, Illinois!

 **Second installment! So exciting!**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 **Oops, I Did It Again**

"So when did you have white hair?" Jack started.

For three hours they had been on the highway and had dumped their stuff in the backseat with Jack. He had since finished the burger and had passed out the chicken in little bits like candy. They had detoured once for Clary and had lost thirty minutes in doing so. Fortunately, they had received a little more food for their detouring troubles and now had a couple water bottles to pass around. The only downside, Jack's insistent extroverted nature – he wanted to talk about everything. Especially the white hair thing he barely remembered.

"I don't." Danny firmly addressed, annoyed with the bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Clary kept flipping the stations until a Keith Urban song popped on and she hummed along to it. Both of the guys exasperated and narrowed their eyes at her. "No!"

She had let her hair down in the car and the big poofy red curls spilled everywhere, and they bounced as her head shook. "Boo, you guys don't know real music!"

Jack snorted. "Are you freaking kidding me? Music is my life. I swear I thought I was Apollo's kid for months till my dad claimed me. Now country music. There is no way country music should even have been defined as music."

"Ugh. Boys." Clary complained and stared out the window.

The car fell silent for a moment. It's blah blue color and tan seats, were boring but safe. Danny knew better than to have Clary steal a red one. The cops would be right on it like hawk. He shivered and turned up the heat. Jack kept piping in every now and then to help with directions because after all the Son of Boreas has the best direction in the entire world. No one else could have better direction, for even Columbus was a son of Boreas with his navigation skills and knowledge of winds and stars.

"For no one else could be more in tune with the direction of the world around than a child of Boreas." Jack proudly stated.

Clary rolled her eyes, Danny peeked at her for a moment, chuckling to himself as her eyes kept changing different colors without her realizing it.

"So, Jack, what's your story?"

He scoffed. "Are we seriously going there? A 'What's your story? Where do you come from? Does your mummy know that you're in New York City'?" He mimicked her voice badly.

"Just answer the question, Jacques."

"Born in Quebec City, Mom didn't speak a lick of English so I taught myself and I kept myself out of trouble. Got attacked by a monster and found myself down in New York City arriving at Camp before I knew it."

"You didn't try to defend yourself?" Clary asked, instantly involved in the story.

Jack rolled his earthy eyes. "Pfft. Not everyone can use their powers, like some people. Stupid Jackson."

With a heavy sigh, Danny looked up in the rearview mirror at Jack. "Dude, some people have skills, others have to work at it. Take me for example. I'm pretty handy and hand to hand but place a bow in my hands and I suck. It's life."

"Well then, mister talker, what's your story, since we're getting all nice and cozy with one another."

His breath hitched in this throat. Clearing it, he swallowed and began his own story. "Well, I come from Amity Park where we're headed to and one day I was attacked by a bull man. Kinda made me want to shout 'Toro! Toro!' at him. Now that would have been funny. Called my mom, she whipped over in the van and we raced down to Long Island, almost getting mauled by Hades' favorite watch dogs. And yes, plural. Lost months of memory and ended up at camp." He finished with a deeper and lower voice.

"How about some music?" Clary intervened, putting on something else than country.

They went on for a couple more hours, and on hour seven had arrived in Illinois and only had to travel upwards to Amity Park – smack dab in the middle of No Where, Illinois.

Every now and then, they would have to take a detour and put the pedal to the metal, but other than a couple remote incidences, it had been a rather peaceful drive. Danny still kept his guard up, there was no way he'd let any monster or ghost get the best of him – again.

Jack opened up his mouth again. "So, what should we expect in Amity Park, Kern?"

"Danny." He corrected. "Just call me Danny, Jack."

"Okay, Danny-boy."

"Except that. You can't call me that. Just Danny."

"Anyway!" Clary interjected once again to Jack's chagrin and Danny's relief.

Danny nodded. "Expect ghosts. Think Hades but where there are lots of mortals."

"Clear sighted mortals?"

He hummed in thought. "Yeah, I suppose you could say that." Danny began again. "Any way, there are some that are ghost hunters and anything unusual attracts them – in fact they introduced ghosts to the living world thanks to their ghost zone portal. So expect ghosts, monsters, and lots of chaos. And, if we're lucky, we'll even see something dangerous.

He turned on the exit for Amity Park and headed down the road until they reached a lovely little sign on the side of the road. Ruination surrounded them. Still blazing pieces of buildings flung from the sky. Thankfully the road was completely empty and Danny swerved to avoid them.

"Uh, is that your town up ahead?" Clary pointed at the town in chaos with a green shield slowly arching over it.

"Buckle up!" Danny yelled as he plonked his metal foot down again with all his demigod strength – denting the stolen car.

For a moment Danny could read the blurry sign of "Welcome to Amity Park.". The green shield nearly enveloped the town only for Danny to continue to press pedal to the metal and thrust the car into the town before it completely shielded the city from the outside. All around ghosts swarmed and cackled and humans screamed in utter terror of them. He gritted his teeth.

They sat in the car for a moment while Jack breathed out a curse in his French Canadian accent. " _Mon Dieu,_ It's like Hades in here."

"Looks like the welcoming committee were on vacation." Danny's eyes flashed emerald once again and white tainted the black tips of his hair. "Hello Amity Park." He grunted out, slamming the car door as he got out of the car. "Clary, can you control your color changing thing?"

"Not really, why – OH. I can try." The lightbulb went off in her head as she understood what Danny was saying.

"Wait what? What's going on? Kern?" Jack tore his eyes from the insane scene to where Danny's hair was changing colors.

Danny turned to look at the two demigods and frowned. "Get over to the Fenton Works building. They should have an operational anti-ghost shield. Get in there, get weapons, and let's move. I've got some ghosts to bust."

"You are not a Ghost Buster."

"Seriously? That's what you're taking away from this? C'mon, Fenton Works is that way where the other green dome is." Danny smacked his face. "Over there and get weapons now. And if you see a techno geek with a beret and/or a goth with purple lipstick, ask them for help and tell them you know me. They'll understand."

After almost a couple minutes of arguing, he watched them go into the green dome and he whispered the three words which set his fate.

"I'm going ghost."

 **And the third and final installment! Welcome to Amity Park, IL, Readers! Can you guess where we are in the Danny Phantom Timeline? If not, you really need to review once again. But thank you so much for getting through the first Arc with me! Now we're on the to Ghost King Arc! The hint is in the name! And I'll give a spoiler next week with chapter fourteen! Enjoy!**

 **R &R Folks!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Arc II – The Ghost King**

 **Chapter Fourteen**

 **My Town**

If Danny had not known beforehand to expect an almost literal hell on Earth, he would have panicked slightly. But as his words rang aloud for few to hear, any panic bowed down to the might of his other self. His bones snapped and his blood crackled as the warmth of humanity fled his body replaced by the chill of death. Ectoplasm awoke and flushed through his veins, overtaking his blood and converting it over. No breath to be heard, no heart to pound, only the electricity of the undead inhabiting the living. This same acidic lightning flushed out the royal blue in his eyes. Staining them electric emerald and destroyed the melatonin within the roots of his hair. The heavy jacket and ripped jeans flashed away into a thick hazmat suit. Danny Phantom burst into belief.

Words vibrated with the lack of a human voice box and the abnormal growling voice of Danny alerted everything – living or dead – of his return. "I'm back, Amity Park! And no one – No one! messes with my town!"

Ghostly skeletons marched towards him, pounding their ethereal feet onto the ground. Oozing of ectoplasm, they chattered amongst themselves for barely a moment. Then they raised their spears into the air wildly and jeered against him. Oddly, Danny recognized their armor. Scratching his head, it clicked. Chiron had spoken of ancient Greek warriors – that's what they were! Oh this would too easy.

For once, he was relieved to have paid attention to a history class. Now, Danny had something to work with.

Roaring, Danny leapt into air, hovering feet above the ground. Thanks to months of both styles of training, Danny charged both hands with ghostly fir. Being more dead than alive in that moment, he barely felt the heat lick his fingertips.

In a blink, the soldiers shuddered down. Toppling on top of each other, they lost all balance and shrieked.

Danny allowed a smirk to flutter on his face.

Mayhem broke loose the next moment. Fiery arrow torn through the hideous air and weapons shot against his skin. Ghosts upon phantoms launched upon him and Danny found himself buried underneath the masses of terrors. His still part human skin broke on impact of weapons and his training had not prepared him for this. Its twin Pandemonium tore into reality next.

Humans raged weapons against the furies that inhabited the underworld and Danny gasped as he heard the familiar cries of Clary and Jack.

"No!" He cried, blasting his deathly aura everywhere.

The ghosts flung against the buildings and humans screamed. Ash and smoke filled his nostrils and screeching, his ears. His hands oddly felt coarse and bloodied. He ventured a glance at his open palms, grimacing at the scratched and ectoplasm mixing with his human blood. Danny released a guttural growl that vibrated in the back of his throat.

"Leave them alone!" Blasting another force of unnatural green energy at the main grouping of ghosts, Danny herded the citizens back to the Fenton Works.

"It's Danny Phantom!"

"Maybe he's here to save us?"

"He's with them! He's a monster!"

Amongst many other such comments that reached his ears, Danny shrugged them off, only making sure that they became safe. He glided above the green shield there at the Fenton's strange house and circled around twice, guiding the people in.

Few ventured outside once he finished his circling, all expect three.

Her voice hitched just before she spoke, "Danny…"

Electric acid green eyes widened and Danny felt his heart ghosting despite it never beating in his Phantom form. The familiar lavender glare made him inwardly whimper. Gods, he missed her. Unclenching his fists, Danny flung himself high into the sky away from the calling voices of his friends. Far away, he darted from Sam and Tucker and Clary. Only, he halted and hovered in the air, glancing down to see platinum blond Jack racing to the others. Danny frowned and surveyed the town and all the destruction taking place.

In his ears the screams of humans and crumbling of buildings echoed and ash spat throughout the air. He had doomed them. His heart sang in his chest and his throat clogged as the chaos enveloped Amity Park.

Allowing a frosty chill to overtake him, Danny floated back down invisibly and huddled behind a pile of rubble. Despite his human blood and the warmth of life washing over him, he felt no true warmth. Frosty and frigid, Danny toddled out of the spot he had landed from and continued forward to four of them still looking skyward.

"Hey guys," Danny raised his hand in greeting, briefly flinching as the icy blaze of Sam's eyes.

His own vision spun and he teetered towards Sam a little more only to find two of her. One step. Two steps. Legs gave out and his drained state collapsed on the cracked pavement.

Blue eyes flew open and Danny found himself in the guestroom of the Fenton's house. In the background, he could hear footsteps and mutterings of conversations. Shivering, he clutched the blankets around him closer and observed the entirety of the room. It was bare, not much to look at, just a normal blue bedroom with a desk and computer, bed, dresser, and a chair. All of which sat on a wooden floor, and on the chair sat an older looking man with long slicked back hair, neatly placed in a ponytail. His silver hair streaked with gray and white but his eyes were frosty chips of ice. For some odd reason, Danny noted that most things bad seemed to have a monochrome theme.

A natural smirk overtook the man's previous stilled expression. "Hello Daniel." The low tone in his voice alerted Danny's sympathetic nervous system. He eyed him carefully.

"Who are you?" Danny barely withheld the growl in his voice, still lowering the octave.

Stranger chuckled. "Why I'm a friend." His words too slick, smoother than ambrosia, for Danny to believe. He briefly was reminded of the Aphrodite children with their smooth talking ways. "A friend of your father's. Thought I'd _pop_ in."

Danny grit his teeth together and this time did nothing to hold back the clear malice in his voice. "Great, maybe you can give him a message for me." And Danny flipped him the bird.

"Come, come, Daniel, you mustn't be like that." The apparent 'friend' of his father's patted his head like a dog. "We're relatives here. Family treats family kindly."

"Sorry, guess I read the wrong version of the family history book, in mine it said, 'fight like your brother stole your sister's daughter who is actually your daughter and that caused the first cycle of seasons'. My mistake, I'll have to get the updated version."

The Stranger laughed. "I see now why you were chosen."

"Really?" Danny bared his teeth. "Why don't you enlighten me."

A grin usurped the smirk and a creepy calm filled the slick voice. "Someday soon you'll find out for yourself, but right now. You have a test to undertake."

"A test?" Raising his thick eyebrows, Danny still kept his shields raised, anticipating the next move.

"But of course, that's why Amity Park is in danger. If you want to know anything about who you truly are, Daniel James Kern, you'll want to consider fighting." The 'family friend' showed off his Vampiric teeth with a nice clean smile and stood up from his chair.

Straightening his back, he waved goodbye to the boy in bed and vanished in a cloud of smoke.

Danny whipped out of bed, landing softly on his feet and turned to look everywhere for a trace of him. Nothing, just the fading smell of smoke remained. Breathing in and then out, Danny straightened up and held his head up high. Cautiously, he exited the room, following the murmurs he had heard earlier.

Everything he heard stopped as he followed the noise down the hall to Jasmine Fenton's room. The incredulous pink room, caused shivers to crawl up his spine. The five of them – including Jazz – sat in a circle around the room discussing many things.

Sam jolted upright and paced towards him and before he knew it his fist held her open palm. Retracting her hand roughly from his tight grasp, Sam growled. "Where have you been!"

"Riding a llama in Neverland, what do you think?" He dryly remarked before his face softened. Lowering his hand, he lightly grabbed both her shoulders and attempted a sad looking smile. "Hey, I'm back now, I'm so sorry I left but I had to. Now I'm here to help and we will figure this out."

The room held silent for a moment, Danny's darkening blue eyes gazing into her amethyst. She moved slightly forward and he met her in the middle, closing the gap by nestling her safe in his arms. He released a breath he didn't realize he was holding, but Danny allowed himself a smile and rested his chin atop her head.

Pushing herself away from him, she flushed bright red. Inwardly, Danny chuckled, but outwardly his smile vanished.

"A-ah, it's not like I missed you or something." Sam fumbled, tumbling over her words. "I mean you did call once which was great. You really should call more often."

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and a mask slipped over his face. "What's going on here, Sam? What's happening?"

Everyone sobered, even his quest companions – Ah, so they knew more than he did. Sam didn't answer; she wasn't quick enough, however Tucker was.

"Dude, we're being attacked by the Ghost King, by Pariah Dark."

 **Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! And Happy Whatever Holiday I missed.**

 **Here is your Christmas present from Me to you, I hope you enjoy it. I will also be putting up a story related poll on my profile either this week or next instead of posting a get-to-know-my-readers question.**

 **I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year**


	15. Chapter 15

**Arc II – The Ghost King**

 **Chapter Fifteen**

 **Evil Doesn't Exactly Knock**

His heart faltered and Danny tightened his clenched fist at the words, "Pariah Dark – Ghost King". Despite his anti-love for the Greek gods and their ability to screw up life without batting an eye, Danny gut twisted and churned within. That title – Ghost King – belonged to one individual and to Hades it stayed forever until _he_ bequeathed that honor to someone.

"Ghost King?" Danny let loose a breath as Clary sough clarification, folding her thin arms under her chest.

This time, it wasn't either of Danny's longtime best friends but the Fenton daughter, Jazz answered the question, buckling under her weight and falling into a sitting position on her bed. "He's terrorized us for days now. The Fright Knight is his eyes and voice in the town."

"Out of the blue," Sam started up, meeting Danny's gaze alone. "all of the ghosts from the Ghost Zone overtook the city and scared the town half to death. After that this army emerged with the Fright Knight towering over them. They're looking for a ring that was stolen from Pariah Dark – that led to his awakening. Apparently he was kept asleep for a long time until recently."

His pointer finger tapped his chin and then he closed his fist over the point of his chin and frowned. "Well, this won't be easy." He switched over to observing his fellow demigods. Children of the minor gods, more powerful and on par with some of the strongest demigods of the Olympians, ready for war and awaiting command if their guarded but listening posture was anything go by. "Jacques." He dropped his hand and slid both of them into his pockets, calling the Canadian by his first name for the first time. "I'll need some wind power. You know the skies better than anyone, and I have to admit, you have more experience with Greek fighting than I do, I'll need you and Sam to find out where this portal to the Ghost Zone is coming from."

"And why are you leading us?" Clary's bushy red eyebrows knit together as her piercing glare caught his attention.

"This is my town." He didn't hesitate to answer. "I know the Ghost Zone, I know is place, and I know the people. This is my quest and they are my responsibility. Whether you like it or not, I'm in charge. And I'll need you and Jazz – if you're doing this, you don't have to – to guard the ghost shield from the outside or from the top. Is the Fenton Tower-thingy operational?"

Jazz's silky ginger hair fell into her face and she tucked the loose strand behind her ear. "Y-yeah it should be. Why?"

"Fire it up. Knowing your parents, it's bound to be fully loaded with ghost weapons." When her face brightened – no not brightened but rather her eyes twinkled and the corners of her mouth lifted her face with more confidence and hope than he had seen her have in this whole ordeal. "Tucker," The techie jolted at the sudden attention, but simmered down instantaneously with the gravity of the situation.

"Hit me with it, Danny." He placed his beloved PDA in his cargo pants pocket.

Danny grimaced. "You and me, we're going down to the lab and seeing if we can wrangle up some ghost hunting gear. Specifically, that Fenton Thermos for every set team. You can run that equipment better than anyone I know. I need you to run interface for all of us and keeps us communicating.

"Go to your places, guys."

They all exited through the door and only two remained. Her lilac eyes darted away from his stony face. She shifted to his side and he lifted his hands out of his pockets and out in front of him. They trembled. Every beat of his heart, every inhalation of air, every head muscle, Danny Kern stood aware of. His vision fogged and he tore his glance away from his hands, letting them fall limp at his side. Sam searched his face and her eyes lost that shine it held only moments ago. Resting her hand on his shoulder, she changed the direction of his focus. "Danny, this plan of yours. You think it's gonna work?"

"I don't know, Sam." He admitted with a shudder. "At camp, I learned how to do war, how to wage battles that could turn the fate of the world on its hinge. And then this – this guy showed up and he told me this is all a test for me. A test dealt by my father. My freaking father who didn't care one bit about my mother. Can you believe that, Sam?" Wild royal blue eyes flickered electric green as he fervently declared his emotions with action and voice. "Why would he test me? I don't even know him! Or care about him! He can go shove Zeus' lightning bolt up his –"

"Danny!" Sam scolded, scowling at him. "Stop it! Think about what's important right now. Is this stupid test worth it or is saving the lives of Amity Park greater? Look, I can't imagine what you're going through right now. But I know that I hardly know my own parents but what I do know is they have an image that I can't fit, and that might be what he is doing to you. But screw him. Screw your dad! You have a town to save, Phantom!"

Danny's body turned completely so that he faced her head on. His head fell onto her shoulder and he sighed, closing his deeper blue eyes. "I'm so tired of this. I want this to be over. But I can't."

Reaching up, Sam wrapped her arms around him and held him there with a smile lightly placed on her face. "You're a hero, you are allowed to be tired. But you know what, your mom would be proud of you."

"How would you know?" His voice cracked.

"I know because I am."

A smile lifted his mouth and he, in turn, lifted himself out of her embrace. Softly, Danny gazed at her.

"Look, if you lovebirds are quite finished in here…"

They jumped apart at the intrusion. Danny scowled. Sam flipped.

"Tucker!" Stereo voices rang out.

Tucker's face twitched for a moment, but the severity kept a grin from appearing. "We need to go now."

Plummeting, his heart did a couple flips and he nodded. Dashing out into the hall after Tucker, they raced downstairs. On the way down, they bumped into a lovely darker girl with brilliant emerald eyes. She growled and muttered something at them, but continued onwards up the stairs while they went down. Tucker swung him into a closet. Danny raised an eyebrow as his best friend shut the door and locked it from the inside. Leave it to the Fentons to have a lock inside the closet door.

"You still do that ghost stuff, yourself? Or did you forget all about that when you ran off?" Tucker questioned.

Instead responding audibly, Danny clutched Tucker's shoulder and they melted through the floor into the ceiling of the laboratory where the Fenton kept on promising to "Rip You Apart MOLECULE BY MOLECULE!" Ah the good old days of only needing to worry about dodging the actually ingenious weapons but idiot inventors. To their surprise, they watched the adults trample one another for a pair of …robotic pants?

"I'll be the one to wear the Fenton Pants!" Mr. Fenton wheezed before falling unconscious. The poor man had cold sweat pouring down his face and age wrinkling it.

"Wait a second." Danny gasped. He settled gently to the ground while Tucker fell on top of the passed out adults. After bumping himself on various peoples, Tucker rubbed his sore spots and got up off the ground.

"Was that seriously necessary, Dude?" The tech-nerd groaned.

Danny demeanor fouled. "I spaced the ring. We need to get the ring away from Fright Knight and Pariah. Tucker, can you get the Fenton Phones and set them to the correct frequencies so we can do this? We need that ring."

"You try setting up six different headsets to the same frequency at once and tell me how that goes!" Tucker grumbled, but still set out to work.

"Who was that girl that we passed?" Danny inquired, walking to the Fenton Pants.

Tucker paused in the middle of gathering the Fenton Phones and shrugged. "Valerie Gray. You kinda messed up her life, dude."

Danny blinked and straightened. "Wait what? A-Lister Valerie?"

"Yeah, you screwed up her life. Remember the factory thing where you found Cujo at? That was her dad's workplace." The PDA enthused teen started the reconfiguration process. "I know you attempted to fix that, but…she really hates Danny Phantom and his evil dog because of you."

"Oh…great." Danny went back to observing the item that the adults were fighting over.

Danny flickered into Ghost mode as Tucker finished up his work. Before he did, however, the techie and PDA lover glanced over at Danny and bit his lower lip. "Hey, dude. What, what happened to you?"

His acidic eyes harkened to shadows. Despite its incredible bright unnatural look, those sharp eyes never before held as much shadow as they had then. Danny folded his arms across his chest and said nothing. Nothing for a moment, then words came out, few but powerful.

"I grew up, Tuck. Faster than I should have." Danny's voice raw from emotion yet blank his face.

He twitched and grunted. "You almost done? We gotta get this going."

"Just about – done, here they are." Tucker turned around and gave five of them to Danny. He pointed at one with green. "This one is yours. It's the master com, you can hear everyone else but they can only hear what you say.

Danny clipped on the earcoms and invisibly handed them out to everyone. First to the front door where Sam and Jack stood, ready for warfare. Then he flew up to the Fenton OpCenter to give them to Jazz and Clary. He flew above the entire building and grimaced. All around them, the world had fallen into chaos and worst of all.

They were in the Ghost Zone.

It clicked in his head and he chuckled out loud.

"Of course! The easiest way to get the ring, bring to King Evil himself."

Damn evil rings.

 **I'm Alive! *Que Mu-Shu laugh*Sorry about the wait guys. I've been super busy and pumped about an opportunity to go to Europe. If it does work out, I promise I'll have plenty of chapters for you afterwards, but that's in summer, a while away from now. In any case I now have the poll up for you guys to vote on. Enjoy the chapter, enjoy the voting and remember to R &R.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Warning: Strong Language**

* * *

 **Chapter 16**

 **Ain't No Rest for the Wicked**

Danny had a plan, err…rather he had an idea that bore logic (so many people would shake their heads here) and experience (yeah, just a few years of battle experience that most kids his age _totally_ had). Drifting down to the ground, the demi-halfa met ecto-skeletons. Not Surprising. He ground his teeth together and blasted them away, swiftly. That group of ghostly soldiers popped off like ducks in hunting season.

Radio chirped in his ear, Danny vaguely recalled having it in his. "Yeah?"

 _"Danny. We've got a situation."_ Sam's voice came in all static-y.

"Lay it on me." Danny ordered brusquely. The unknown demigod analyzed the battlefield, waiting for more of Pariah's troops to attack.

 _"It's Valerie. She took off._ "

"What? How!"

 _"We don't know,"_ Jack's voice rang in. _"This Val girl just up and vanished. Adults came looking for her just a few minutes ago."_

With a heavy sigh, Dann shot ectoplasm at two more undead. "Great. Have Jazz keep an eye out."

 _"Will do."_

Danny thought back briefly to when he had last seen the girl whose life he had apparently ruined. Flipping over some rubble, he pressed against the stone and leapt forward, spiraling and aiming at the ghosts. Something – she was off, supernaturally glowing. A frown crossed his face. But how? A mortal human didn't exactly have the means to be unnatural unless they were Seers and/or Clear-sighted. Danny knew for a fact Valerie was neither. But…what was that sensation he got?

Phasing in and out, avoiding blasts and gunshots, Danny turned invisible. He shot at the other ghosts and phantoms. Despite being dead at that moment, he felt out of breath (had to be due to his human half) and sweaty. Too bad he didn't have any actual tell as Danny Phantom, he'd have a better idea of when to stop exerting himself. Intangibly sliding through a building after getting the brunt of a couple attacks, Danny growled. Snarling, he shot out of the store and pounded the two of them against a different building on that street. The mere force of the attack on Pariah's goons cracked the brick wall of the store front. Grimacing, Danny flung into a different building as some ray burnt his shoulder.

"Dammit!" He cursed, powering up a blast in his hands.

Looking up, a guttural growl slipped out. Some human in a red bodysuit shot him, him! And all he'd even be doing was protecting her kind. Danny stiffened at the vibration humming through the air. He cast out his sense for the source, finding it – No, he'd known this sensation. This hadn't come from – _could not_ have come from – No way in Hades. Danny scowled at the mortal human.

"Valerie, what do you think you're doing?" He raised both eyebrows, diffusing the blast, Though he lost the attack, he didn't lose his wariness that etched itself on every part of his being. "You're supposed to be at Fenton Works – safe and sound."

"Shut it, Ghost Boy!" She grunted, her semi-nasally voice giving away her youth and identity. "You've ran off for a whole year after you _ruined_ my life! Now you appear when my city gets wasted by ghosts. Coincidence? I think not!"

Danny stares at her with the most unaffected features. His mouth drew a thin line and he shifted one eyebrow upwards, folding his arms across his chest. "As much as I appreciate your little logic trip here. You need to figure something out. Not once, have I ever attacked humans. Haven't touched a single mortal during my time here. And when you've come to attack me, was I fighting humans? Nope. Just angry grunt ghosts."

"Pfft, you're a ghost, what do you care about protecting people?" Valerie wrung her black leather covered hand at him. "I'm protecting people – living people- from monsters like you!"

"With what? Fancy tech and anger?" Danny snorted. Floating up into the air, he rose to her level and frowned. "Great sob story, but the vigilante background story is gonna have to wait till Pariah is gone. Try protecting people from inside Fenton Works, where there's working ghost tech rather than outside where you're gonna die."

Valerie's black-tinted visor lifted upwards and he could see her snarling at him, madder than a hornet. "What do you know about saving people!" She seethed, barely restraining herself from firing her wrist gun at him. "All you do is hurt and destroy! You're a freaking ghost! You're dead!"

Pressing his finger to the com unit, Danny ignored her words but stared at her without blinking. "Found Val –"

"What you contacting one of your ghost buddies?" Valerie the part-time Ghost-hunter snapped.

He bit back a remark and continued his message. "Attempting to bring her back _without_ the whole ghost army on our tails."

All the while he spoke, he stretched out with his ecto sense. Working like sonar sense for the bats, he clenched his teeth. Something's coming. He sighed and vanished, reappearing in the shadows underneath and behind her. Leaping up, Danny apologized to her and knocked the shocked Valerie off her hoverboard and into unconsciousness.

Catching her in his arms, he almost missed Tucker's remark. " _Valerie Gray?"_

" _Copy that._ " Clary butted in before either guy could speak, " _Need an assist?"_

"No, I've already got her. Bringing her in now." Danny grunted as he shifted her to a more comfortable position. "Prep for ghosts though."

 _"…She's got the ring, doesn't she?"_

Danny nodded despite being unable to see Clary's thin face. "Be there in a few." Climbing a little in the sky, he held her against her shoulder.

Crying out, he stumbled back midair. Danny snarled as the ecto beams shot against them, hitting his back and her helmet. Eyes flared brilliant green and the halfa spun around to face his attackers. So as Danny bared his teeth, at the undead assailants, he raised his hand at them and the air crackled around them. They vanished.

Not willing to look a gift horse in the mouth, Danny took off with Valerie, chewing the inside of his cheek. The flight to Fenton Works, Danny continuously glimpsed over his shoulder, grinding his teeth together. Not just keeping watch behind them, but he also noticed the ring more. It pulsated ecto energy – something stirred within him. His fingers itched to hold the ring himself, but with the unconscious anti-ghost vigilante in his arms, he could not. His senses froze on him and he flung backwards.

"Hello Halfa." A grave voice drew him from his stupor. An ecto-glowing knight from the flipping Middle Ages glowered at him. The mere stone coldness of the voice sent shivers down his spine. "You have something of mine. Give me the Ring of Rage and I will let you go."

"How about…over my vaporized body!" Danny refuted. Pressing the com button against his shoulder, Danny Kern grunted. "Gonna be late. Don't wait up." And he immediately blast the Fright Knight with an ecto blast from his foot.

Crap.

How was he gonna protect Valerie? Danny's head ran wild. Oh for the gods' sake! Danny chewed his bottom lip and subconsciously shielded Valerie form the attack.

His back burnt and he bit his tongue just to not scream in agony.

Sword swung down on him and Danny tumbled away, cradling Valerie like a bride. His shoulder freaking stung as the sword slit through part of it. Hissing in pain, Danny's eyes burnt dark green – electric but darker than they had ever been before. Pale eyes peered from under the Fright Knight's helmet wide and suddenly the knight jumped back, trembling.

"No..." His voice shook.

Danny hardly noticed, his heart pumping fire through his veins. He concentrated the power into his left hand, the burn coarse and pulsing the ecto energy and something else. Far richer – far more – Danny felt a rush of vigor flood through him in an unholy way.

"No, you can't be – Not – It's impossible!" Fright Knight dropped his sword on the ground. "They swore – you shouldn't exist!"

"Well, looks like today is your lucky day to experience the impossible." Danny's own voice thundered darkly, dropping considerably in octaves. Raising his hand towards the Fright Knight, he tilted his head back and smirked. Taking aim, he fired away and the ghost screeched out to the heavens, fading away in a bright white light.

Danny sank to the ground, stumbling down. The energy – the power it drained him. Grimacing, he began to float upwards again, pale, clammy, and shaking. His body shaking with cold sweat.

Only a wrenching half-hour in the air later, the barely capable Danny sank to the side of Fenton Works, toppling down into his human form with Valerie still in his arms. Jack and Sam peered around the corner, both of their eyes growing wider. Sam rushed towards him while Jack grabbed unconscious Valerie. Danny leaned into her embrace.

"Danny…what happened?" Sam questioned, her voice shaking.

Before he could answer, Jack chocked loudly and they both flinched, staring at his gaping face. Jack gulped down air and swore vividly in French.

Finally, Jack tilted his gaze towards Danny.

Finally, he switched to English.

Finally, he spoke.

"Son of Hades."

Danny Kern's breath hitched.

"Nope. No fucking way." He cussed. "I can't be."

He wobbled onto his feet and broke away from Sam. Leaning against the next-door neighbor's brick wall. Danny cursed again.

"Fuck."

* * *

 **So... not dead.**

 **Just dropped a bomb on all y'all. Enjoy it.**

 **Q: What's your favorite genre of music?**

 **See ya next time!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

 **All My Friends Are Heathens**

Heaving himself up off the forest floor, the boy growled primally. He stood on his own two feet and wobbled into Camp Halfblood. So many of them gasped, some shrieked, most of them muttered amongst themselves as the boy hobbled through the center of the camp. His left leg broken, his black hair unruly and greasy, his body and clothes covered in cuts and bruises and burns. The two others behind him, attempting to bear each other's weight and make it into camp.

The two trekking behind were immediately assisted as they got to camp, two Apollo kids took hold of them. These two were in far worse shape than the one ahead. The girl barely could see anything, blood seeping down her face, tear stained paths weaving in and out of the cuts on her face. They muttered about how she would have so many scars. Her companion, a guy, his right arm broken in two and his breathing so shaky, sweat rolling off of his body in large droplets, was just as bad as she was.

Percy Jackson had made it back and reached forward for the other raven hair teen, the one who had first come into camp, and helped him to the infirmary. Noticing his helper, the boy with blue eyes glanced at the other teenager and noticed a new thing to his appearance. "Getting old on me, Jackson?" He attempted to chuckle and it came out in heavy hacking.

Percy bit his lower lip and gave him a small grin, "You wish, Kern."

The lacerations and dried blood hardly left Danny Kern with a shirt left to wear. The plain t-shirt seemed to be holding on, literally, by a thread. His broken leg bent in a awkward position. Every time Danny put weight on it, he grit his teeth. His arms and face covered in angry red marks and ugly black and blue bruises. From what Percy recalled, they had been on a quest in Illinois, how had they made it to Long Island like this? Clary, Jack, his thoughts trailed off in dismay at what on earth could have caused this.

"Daniel." Chiron clopped out to them from the infirmary. "What happened?"

Percy looked up, just now noticing the old centaur. He appeared incredibly worn down, his coat shabby, his eyes had dark circles underneath them. For once, Percy could actually believe that Chiron had been alive since before Ancient Greece.

"War." Danny muttered, barely lifting his site from the floor. The boy in his arms could hardly lift his head without flinching in pain.

Chiron looked at Percy and frowned. "Bring him immediately into the infirmary."

Nodding, he carried the immensely lighter teenager into the infirmary and onto a bed where the Apollo cabin immediately got to work. Once the Clary and Jack were in as well, the entire room bustled with activity and not the good kind, Percy could tell.

They forced everyone who was not helping out (or a nuisance in their butts Percy thought), out of the infirmary. Time passed by.

One hour, Percy had talked with Annabeth about the situation in quiet tones.

Two hours passed by and Percy had started to wander around, couldn't keep his mind on any of the camp activities.

Three hours and then four and still no word from the Apollo kids. All of them working around the clock to heal Danny, Clary, and Jack. Percy had camped himself near the infirmary, hoping for word of his friend. To his dismay, the curtains were drawn, the door was shut tight, no one in and no one out. He gave a sigh, tapping his foot restlessly against the ground, leaning against a tree. He hoped for someone to say something. One of the kids that Percy had seen around walked up to him with an odd expression on her face.

"Something has changed." She proclaimed in a subdued voice.

Percy blinked a few times before paying full attention to her. "Uh, what?"

"Crys, daughter of Enyo the war goddess, nice to finally meet you, Percy Jackson." She raised her hand to shake his.

Blinking again, he gave her his hand and they shook. After, he placed both of his hands in his pockets, staring at Crys. "So, What?"

She gave him a sad smile, the kind that someone would give to a person who was about to hear the worst news in the world. "Our friend, Danny, he has changed. War is coming, and Danny has come back from one war only to fight another."

"How can you tell?" Percy watched her, shifting his stance uneasily.

Crys shook her head. "I'm the daughter of the war goddess. Fighting is in my blood, battle is written in my DNA, I can tell if a soldier has seen the worst or if there is death on the horizon. My mother has given all of her children this ability. We don't need an oracle to see that kind of future, we can physically smell it, past or present and Danny. Well, Danny has just come back from a horrific war and we're about to go straight back into one."

The son of Poseidon gave her a thoughtful look. Before he could say anything else, she started up again.

"You've seen war; you've lived it." She observed, cracking her knuckles before fiddling with the knife she had on her. "You're entire life has been full of some sort of pain and it won't stop just yet. You're going to surpass many of the demigods with the life you lead."

Percy Jackson had no words for her at that moment. Normally something witty would have popped out or he would suffer from foot-in-mouth disease and say something stupid. This time, however, he did not. Percy nodded before leaving her alone to watch over the infirmary by herself. Instead, he went in search of Annabeth, hoping to make some sense of Crys's words.

Five hours passed and they finally began to call for Chiron and Mr. D into the infirmary. Percy being Percy decided to sneak in regardless. Once inside of the infirmary, ah so many memories inside of here. Percy shook his head to clear his thoughts, and focused on the situation at hand.

"Danny, can you tell us what happened?" Chiron inquired.

Danny snorted, his eyes darkening and, as Percy kept watching, his eyes lost so much life in them. Once he opened his mouth to speak, his voice sounded gravelly and tired. "We fought Pariah Dark, a Ghost King. He went rogue under Hades rule and now is back in his coffin, forever. The key was thrown away."

"How did you get back?"

"Hades." His eyes practically were black with hints of blue.

As he kept speaking, Percy was swept away into what had happened in Illinois.

 _Once they arrived the entire town of Amity Park had been enclosed in a green force field bubble, separating it from the living world. They had to fight through these undead Greek warriors in order to get to Fenton Works where most of the townspeople were held up. Danny had gotten hit pretty bad and with a little Ambrosia got back on his feet to formulate some kind of plan with his questing pals and friends. While they were there, they discovered who his dad was and the other demigods and his friends had a little freak out session. He eventually got everyone to quiet down and formulate a plan of attack. They would fight back the very next day, after they healed from their wounds._

 _Jazz and Sam suggested talking the ghosts into helping them out with defeating the king. So, they tried it out, Danny was laughed at, ridiculed, and spat at. No one believed him. No one even tried to. Once he was healed, they began their plan._

 _Jack and Clary went in first, the whole of the ghosts slowly being vanquished one at a time. Then Danny came in with the Fenton Suit and attacked. It didn't go over well. An ocean of monstrous ghosts kept up the onslaught as they all but took them down. Clary screamed as one of them split open her forehead and Jack cried out in pain as his bone cracked in his arm. Danny wasn't exactly better off himself, his energy was running low and he could feel himself fading from yesterday's injuries._

 _Amazingly, some of the ghosts that had run from Pariah Dark came and helped them out. It blew his mind that the ghosts helped out and the more he attempted access his godly side, the more the ghosts turned on each other. Danny was tiring out quickly due to the suit and controlling the ghosts. He jumped directly to Pariah Dark and took him on. Despite everything, he kept at it and exchanged blow for blow. Knocking off Pariah's crown, he received a blow to the chest, ripped out of the suit._

 _Danny tried to stand up and slowly achieved that, only to be thrown aside, head first into the ground. Crying out something in Greek,_ (the word had been mumbled and Percy could hardly understand what he said) _and he stood up, a bit more powered than before. He attacked Pariah with his will, with his control over ghosts. Danny had passed out soon after, but from what his friends had told him, he had sealed Pariah in the sarcophagus, throwing the key away._

 _Soon after he awoke from that, this Vlad character popped up, once before he had shown up to tell Danny that this was a test, this time he arrived with a smirk and a pleased look on his face. He announced that Danny had passed his father's first test and he would be once again of service later down the road. Vlad also said that his father would send them home, which is how they ended up in Long Island. Unfortunately something had happened and they had gotten even more torn up and hurt, which sucked because they also had to hike all the way to Camp Halfblood._

"And that's how we ended up back here like this." Danny's voice sounded scratchy again. "Quest complete, yay. Can I sleep now?"

"Of course." Chiron nodded. "Oh and Percy, you can talk to your friend now."

Percy gulped as he appeared from behind the pillar, an innocent smile on his face. Mr. D _hrumphed. "_ Patrick Johns, what are you doing here?"

"Uh, visiting a friend?" He scratched behind his head.

"Likely story." Again Mr. D grumbled and sipped from his can of Diet coke, muttering about why it's not wine and stupid Dad not letting him do what he wants, before stalking out of the building with Chiron not far behind him.

Percy walked over to Danny, but before he could talk to him, Chiron rested a hand on his shoulder. "Percy, I hope you understand why we need to be quiet about Danny's heritage."

Already they had known about two children of Hades but now a third? One had died, the other had run off, and this was injured pretty nasty. Percy had some idea about why they shouldn't say too much of anything.

"I can hear you, y'know." Danny grumbled, peeping his eyes open. He had drawn his blanket up to above his nose and his unruly black hair fell right over his eyes. One could barely see the thin view of his blue irises. "I don't care who in Hades knows. People are idiots. They didn't like me 'fore, being Hades' kid won't change that."

Percy furrowed his brows. "Danny,"

"Whatever." He cut him off and turned over onto his other side.

As Danny twisted over, one of the Apollo kids yelped and scowled at him. "Kern, you're not supposed to move too much! You haven't fully healed yet from your injuries! You're going to make things worse!"

"You think I care!" He growled out.

"Danny!" Percy shouted in surprise. He knew the kid had some issues but didn't realize it was this bad. His cousin, wow, his cousin, wasn't exactly the type he figured would explode on people like this. Then again, how long had they known each other? Not long enough. Percy frowned.

Danny grumbled and muttered some rather interesting things that made Percy's ears go red.

* * *

 **Wow, it's been awhile but here it is, the promised chapter!**

 **Enjoy all y'all**

 **R &R  
Reviews make for faster updates**


	18. Hiatus

Dear Readers,

Unfortunately at this time, none of my stories will be updated for close to a year unless things change. at this point in my life, I am entering the U.S. military and must leave for the following time period. when I am free to write again, I will do so.

Either I will leave this account in the hands of my boyfriend and he will give his own updates which (unless noted otherwise by myself) will be seen as AUs for this universe or this will not be updated at all until I am actually back to free writing time. In either situation, I am sorry that you will not be enjoying any more updates for the foreseavle future.

Until We Meet Again,

Sora Maro


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